Same-different fraction equivalence and simple multiplication study

Fraction magnitude understanding was found to be an important predictor of later math achievement. Several studies were conducted aiming at disentangling the underlying mechanisms of fraction magnitude processing in general. Overall, results suggest that the holistic magnitude of fractions is not always activated and used automatically. Rather, the use of holistic and componential processes seems to depend on the type of fraction, amongst other factors. Following this line of research, the current study sets out to further expand our knowledge about the underlying mechanisms of fraction magnitude processing by specifically zooming in on a so far under-researched fraction type: equivalent fractions. As an extension to the study by Gabriel et al. (2013), in the present study, participants will be presented with a same-different-task evaluating their performance in categorizing fractions pairs as numerically the same (i.e., when these are identical, e.g., 1/2_1/2 or equivalent, e.g., 1/2_2/4) or numerically different (e.g., 1/2_1/3). Equivalent fraction pairs were further manipulated with respect to the divisor required to reduce them to the respective base fraction (e.g., divisor 2: 1/2_2/4, divisor 3: 1/2_3/6, divisor 4: 1/2_4/8). In addition, participants will be presented with a multiplication verification task to evaluate their performance in arithmetic fact retrieval. RQ: What are the underlying processes of processing equivalent fractions? • Are equivalent fractions processed holistically or componentially? • Does multiplication fact knowledge influence the processing of equivalent fractions?