Which town needs more help?

5- to 7-year-olds

This study will take place on a video call, live with a researcher! Clicking on the "Schedule a time to participate" button will send you to an online calendar where you can select a date and time that works for you. Once the call begins, our researcher will introduce your child to 4 short stories about fictional groups of children in different towns. In each story, some children experience an event (like catching a cold or getting a stomachache). We will ask your child questions about which group of children experiences the event more often.

We're investigating how young children reason about proportions in everyday situations. Even though children can count and compare numbers, understanding proportional relationships (like comparing 4 out of 8 versus 5 out of 20) can be more challenging. In this study, we're interested in whether children can use proportional reasoning to compare how often events happen in different-sized groups, and whether their reasoning changes depending on how the information is presented.

15 minutes

Within two weeks you will be sent a $5 gift card to Amazon.com. You will be compensated even if your child is unable to complete the whole study. However, we cannot compensate unless you attend the Zoom call with an age appropriate child whose only or predominant language is English, and we cannot compensate the participation of a single child more than once.