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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Scholarly Works (12 results)

  • Article
  • Peer Reviewed
Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Volume 42 (2020)
Our sense of space, time, and number is well documented, but do we have a similar sense for money? Like the ability tosense the passage of time, can we sense the accumulation of expenses and make accurate estimates? The present studyinvestigated the ability to estimate grocery cart totals, and whether it relates to number sense and financial managementbehaviors. Participants were asked which of two options (same product: one bigger, one smaller, with different price-to-amount ratios) they would purchase. Afterwards, participants completed the Abbreviated Numeracy Scale as a distractortask. Participants were then asked to estimate the total cost of all the items they chose during the decision-making task.We found that greater numeracy skills and financial management behaviors predicted better estimation skills. Those withgreater numeracy skills were also more likely to consider price-to-amount ratios during decision-making and to choose thebetter deal.
    Cover page: Dollar Sense? The Relationship Between Numeracy, Financial Management andEstimation of Cart Total After ShoppingCreative Commons 'BY' version 4.0 license
    • Article
    • Peer Reviewed
    Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Volume 45 (2023)
    There are often systematic differences between description- and experienced-based risky choices. For description-based choices, individuals are more risk-seeking for losses than for gains. Nevertheless, for experience-based choices, such a trend is reversed when they encounter alternatives associated with extreme outcomes (i.e., the best and worst). One reason is that extreme outcomes are more salient in memory, potentially due to their distinctiveness and proximity to the edges of the outcome distribution. Ludvig and colleagues (2018) have suggested that proximity to edges (not distinctiveness) results in memory bias for extreme outcomes. The current study replicates and extends upon Ludvig et al. (2018)’s work to examine the effects of increasing distances (addition, scaling) between neighboring outcomes. The results are consistent with those observed in the previous study, thereby further supporting the claim that extreme outcomes are prominent in both memory and choice because they are close to the edges of the experienced distribution.
      Cover page: How close is close enough? How even neighbors of extreme choices drive risky choiceCreative Commons 'BY' version 4.0 license
      • Thesis
      • Peer Reviewed
      UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2023)

      Many years of K-12 math education are dedicated to the learning of numbers (e.g., counting, different number forms: whole numbers, decimals, fractions). A common challenge is the integration of learned number forms (e.g., whole numbers) with new number forms (e.g., decimals) as children tend to carry the “rules” they learned to the next number concept. Research on number representation has covered numbers up to proper fractions (e.g., magnitudes less than 1), but little research has been conducted looking at number forms beyond this point, like improper fractions (e.g., magnitudes more than 1, 5/3), squares and square roots. In my dissertation, I ask the question of whether adults also rely on more familiar/known number forms when processing these more complex number forms. The overarching hypothesis is that people use more familiar/known number forms as references for assessing magnitude of these complex number forms because the number representation of the former is more precise and reliable than the latter. I use a combination of cognitive and perceptual tasks such as magnitude comparison of numbers and visuals, and magnitude estimation across four chapters. People were better at assessing the magnitudes of improper fractions when they used mixed fractions and decimals as reference points rather than improper fractions (Chapter 1). Performance on magnitude comparison of improper fractions worsened as (whole number) magnitude increased for both symbolic/numerical and non-symbolic/visual tasks (Chapter 2). The reference numerical range for squaring numbers anchored and restricted people’s estimates of squares (Chapter 3). Finally, the natural numbers within the square root sign predicted magnitude estimation of square roots better than its actual magnitudes (i.e., mental number line hypothesis) and distance from perfect-squares predicted magnitude estimation as well. Altogether, we found that people use more familiar numbers – whole numbers, proper fractions, decimals (Chapter 1); multiples (Chapter 2); numerical range (Chapter 3); and natural numbers and perfect-squares – when processing more complex numbers – improper fractions (Chapters 1-2), squares (Chapter 3) and square roots (Chapter 4). My dissertation fills in major gaps in the numerical cognition literature and its chosen number forms have implications for algebra and calculus readiness in students.

        • Article
        • Peer Reviewed
        Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Volume 44 (2022)
        The new Sans Forgetica (SF) typeface was designed to promote desirable difficulty. Here, we investigate whether SF improves memory for words with within-subject designs. Participants studied words in Arial and SF (Exp 1 and 2) and completed old-new recognition tests where words retained their study fonts (Exp 1) or were in either Arial or SF (Exp 2). They had significantly better recognition (hit rate) in SF than in Arial (Exp 1) and significantly higher sensitivity indexes (d’) when words were tested in SF than in Arial (Exp 2). While encouraging, further examination of these results (e.g., response bias) suggest a less straightforward interpretation. Thus, we have reservations for the effectiveness and use of SF for improving word memory.
          Cover page: Does Sans Forgetica font facilitate word memory?Creative Commons 'BY' version 4.0 license
          • Article
          • Peer Reviewed
          Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Volume 41 (2019)
          People encounter improper fractions in real life contexts on a regular basis. One such example is with bundling at thegrocery store (2/$4 or two for $4). The present study seeks to understand how people process these bundle prices comparedto improper fractions. Participants completed a magnitude comparison task with different bundling formats (2/$4 vs. $4/2)and their fractional equivalents. We found a reliable difference between the bundle format (2/$4) seen in grocery storesand the most visually similar fraction (2/4). This difference shows that participants are not using a heuristic (larger fractionmeans cheaper per item) when comparing these bundle deals and instead do need to process them like improper fractions.Overall, we found that participants were better at comparing fractional magnitudes in a math context than in a financialcontext and that this effect of context also depended on format (2/4 vs. 4/2).
            Cover page: Magnitude Processing of Improper Fractions When Comparing Bundle Deals
            • Article
            • Peer Reviewed
            Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Volume 41 (2019)
            The present study examines whether peoples mental representation of discounted prices, which have a part-whole relation-ship of the current price to the original price, is similar to that of fractions. Participants performed a fraction comparisontask and a deal comparison task on the same set of fractional magnitudes. In two experiments, we observed worse perfor-mance (error rate, RT of correct trials) on the deal comparison task. The distance effect, where magnitude comparisons aremade more slowly and less accurately the closer two magnitudes are, observed in the two tasks was best modeled usinglogarithmic distance between the fractional magnitudes as a predictor of performance.
              Cover page: Magnitude Comparisons of Discounted Prices: Are They Similar to Fractions?
              • Article
              • Peer Reviewed
              Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Volume 41 (2019)
              Previous studies examining the mental representations of fractions have focused on fractions with magnitudes less thanone (e.g., 2/3). In the current study, we examine the mental representations of fractions with magnitudes greater than one,specifically those of improper fractions. Participants were asked to make magnitude comparisons of these improper frac-tions to a reference that was in an improper fraction, a mixed fraction, or a decimal format. Results show that magnitudesof improper fractions were more accurately accessed when they were compared to mixed fractions and decimals. Thissuggests that the reinterpretation of these improper fractions benefited magnitude processing. Distance effects on errorrate and response time were observed for all three reference formats and more consistently took the form of a Welfordfunction, which predicts worse performance above rather than below the reference. Possible explanations of these resultsare discussed.
                Cover page: Magnitude Comparisons of Improper Fractions
                • Article
                • Peer Reviewed
                Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (2023)
                Previous research assessing peopleÕs sense of correlation used scatterplots as stimuli and asked participants to estimate the correlation of said scatterplots. This method has consistently shown that people tend to underestimate the correlation of a scatterplot (e.g., guessing the correlation is 0.25 when the actual correlation is 0.5). However, it is unclear whether this underestimation is perceptual or reflective of having a poor internal representation of different correlations. We investigated this question by flipping the task: instead of estimating the correlation from a scatterplot, participants drew a scatterplot based on a given correlation. They drew 20 points to represent the correlation coefficients: 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1. While the drawn correlations of 0, 0.75 and 1 were quite accurate, the drawn correlations of 0.25 and 0.5 were much higher than the requested correlations. This pattern is consistent with previous research, suggesting the underestimation may not be perceptual.
                  Cover page: Performance of drawing scatterplots based on given correlations
                  • Article
                  • Peer Reviewed
                  Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Volume 45 (2023)
                  Many studies have failed to replicate the disfluency effect (i.e. disfluent font better than fluent font) on Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) performance shown in Alter et al. (2007). Those studies manipulated perceptual disfluency using color, style, size, and/or typefaces. The new Sans Forgetica (SF) typeface, designed to promote desirable difficulty, creates perceptual disfluency through fragmented letters, which make it difficult for readers to use good continuation and perceptual completion to identify letters. Here, we compare CRT performance and font legibility ratings when CRT problems are presented in SF or in Arial. Bayes Factors on solution rates show moderate evidence of SF not improving CRT performance. After solving CRT problems, participants who solved the problems in SF rated Arial to be harder to read than participants who solved the problems in Arial, suggesting that after prolong use of SF, participants viewed Arial as being closer in legibility to SF.
                    Cover page: Cognitive Reflection Test Performance with Arial and Sans Forgetica FontCreative Commons 'BY' version 4.0 license
                    • Article
                    Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Volume 40 (2018)
                    Research has shown that estimation of correlation from scatter plots is done poorly by both novices and experts. We tested whether proficiency in correlation estimation could be improved by perceptual learning interventions, in the form of perceptual-adaptive learning modules (PALMs). We also tested learning effects of alternative category structures in perceptual learning. We organized the same set of 252 scatter plot displays either into a PALM that implemented spacing in learning by shape categories or one in which the categories were ranges of correlation strength. Both PALMs produced markedly reduced errors, and both led trained participants to classify near transfer items as accurately as trained items. Differences in category organization produced modest effects on learning; there was some indication of more consistent reduction of absolute error when learning categories were organized by shape, whereas average bias of judgments was best reduced by categories organized by different numerical ranges of correlation.
                      Cover page: Perceptual Learning in Correlation Estimation: The Role of Learning Category Organization
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