Children’s Discrete Proportional Reasoning Is Related to Inhibitory Control and Enhanced by Priming Continuous Representations

Children can successfully compare continuous proportions as early as age 4, yet struggle to compare discrete proportions least to age 10, especially when the discrete information is misleading. This study examined whether inhibitory control contributes to individual differences in discrete proportional reasoning and whether reasoning could be enhanced by priming continuous information. Forty-nine second-graders completed two tasks. In the Hearts and Flowers (H&F) task, a measure of inhibition, children pressed either on the corresponding or opposite side depending on the identity of the displayed figure. In the Spinners task, a measure of proportional reasoning, children chose the spinner with the proportionally larger red area, across continuous and two discrete formats. In the discrete adjacent format, the continuous stimuli were segmented into sections, which could be compatible with the proportional information or misleading; the discrete mixed format interspersed the colored sections from the discrete adjacent conditions. Finally, two priming groups were formed. Children who saw the continuous immediately before the discrete adjacent format formed the Continuous-priming group (n =26). Children who saw discrete mixed immediately before the discrete adjacent format formed the Discrete-priming group (n =23). Our results showed that children who performed better in the H&F task also had better performance on the discrete counting misleading trials. Furthermore, children in the Continuous-priming group outperformed children in the Discrete-priming group, specifically in contexts where discrete information was misleading. These results suggest that children’s proportional reasoning may be improved by fostering continuous representations of discrete stimuli and by enhancing inhibitory control skills.