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Temas em Psicologia

Print version ISSN 1413-389X

Abstract

SPINILLO, Alina Galvão  and  MARTINS, Rosita Marina Ferreira Batista. The invariant principles of measurement examined in the perspective of number sense. Temas psicol. [online]. 2015, vol.23, n.1, pp. 97-109. ISSN 1413-389X.

This study investigates children's knowledge about measurements based on the idea of invariants principles, and of number sense. Forty children (6 and 8 years old) made judgments about situations involving measurements of volume, mass, distance and length. Task 1 examined the ability to identify the appropriate unit to measure different magnitudes, and Task 2 the understanding of the inverse relation between the size of the unit and the number of units needed to measure a magnitude of an object. Results showed that children have a sense of measurement and that this sense does not manifest itself equally in relation to different magnitudes. Also, children showed a better understanding about the inverse relation between the size of the unit and the number of units than of the relation between unit and the magnitude of the object to be measured.

Keywords : Children; measurement; invariant principles; number sense.

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