Zhang Li, Fang Qiaochu, Gabriel Florence C, Szűcs Denes
a Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality , Ministry of Education , Chongqing , China.
b Faculty of Psychology , Southwest University , Chongqing , China.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2016;69(4):764-80. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2015.1052525. Epub 2015 Jul 3.
Although several studies have compared the representation of fractions and decimals, no study has investigated whether fractions and decimals, as two types of rational numbers, share a common representation of magnitude. The current study aimed to answer the question of whether fractions and decimals share a common representation of magnitude and whether the answer is influenced by task paradigms. We included two different number pairs, which were presented sequentially: fraction-decimal mixed pairs and decimal-fraction mixed pairs in all four experiments. Results showed that when the mixed pairs were very close numerically with the distance 0.1 or 0.3, there was a significant distance effect in the comparison task but not in the matching task. However, when the mixed pairs were further apart numerically with the distance 0.3 or 1.3, the distance effect appeared in the matching task regardless of the specific stimuli. We conclude that magnitudes of fractions and decimals can be represented in a common manner, but how they are represented is dependent on the given task. Fractions and decimals could be translated into a common representation of magnitude in the numerical comparison task. In the numerical matching task, fractions and decimals also shared a common representation. However, both of them were represented coarsely, leading to a weak distance effect. Specifically, fractions and decimals produced a significant distance effect only when the numerical distance was larger.
尽管已有多项研究比较了分数和小数的表征，但尚无研究探讨分数和小数作为两种有理数类型是否共享数量大小的共同表征。本研究旨在回答分数和小数是否共享数量大小的共同表征这一问题，以及答案是否受任务范式的影响。在所有四个实验中，我们纳入了两种不同的数字对，并依次呈现：分数 - 小数混合对和小数 - 分数混合对。结果表明，当混合对在数值上非常接近，差值为0.1或0.3时，在比较任务中存在显著的距离效应，但在匹配任务中不存在。然而，当混合对在数值上相距更远，差值为0.3或1.3时，无论具体刺激如何，距离效应都会出现在匹配任务中。我们得出结论，分数和小数的数量大小可以以一种共同的方式来表征，但它们的表征方式取决于给定的任务。在数值比较任务中，分数和小数可以转换为数量大小的共同表征。在数值匹配任务中，分数和小数也共享一种共同表征。然而，两者的表征都比较粗略，导致距离效应较弱。具体而言，分数和小数仅在数值距离较大时才会产生显著的距离效应。
