The role of relational preference in early proportional reasoning

Recent literature suggests proportional reasoning develops at an earlier age than traditionally assumed. It also indicates that in tasks where both additive and multiplicative reasoning are appropriate, some children have a preference for additive relations, while others have a preference for multiplicative relations. In this study we investigated how 5- to 8-year-olds' additive or multiplicative preference relates to individual differences in performance on early proportional reasoning problems in the third grade of elementary school, right before the start of formal instruction on it. Results showed that many of these young children demonstrated an additive preference, and some already a multiplicative preference. Not only the few children who already preferred multiplicative relations or switched between additive and multiplicative answers, but also the children showing an additive preference performed substantially better on the early proportional reasoning task than children with no or inconsistent attention to the relations. It seems to be that the earlier a child shows an additive preference, the better they perform on proportional reasoning problems in grade 3. Surprisingly, children made almost no additive errors in proportional reasoning problems in grade 3, and an additive preference was instead associated with more correct reasoning on early proportional reasoning problems. Theoretical, methodological and educational implications are discussed. •Relational preference can be measured by non-symbolic open missing-value problems.•Many 5- to 8-year-old have an additive preference.•Very few have a multiplicative preference.•Relational preference is related to early proportional reasoning abilities.