Semantic Alignment of Fractions and Decimals with Discrete Versus Continuous Entities: A Cross-national Comparison

일시: 9월 11일(금) 오후 5시

장소: 위당관 202호

주관: 인지과학연구소 및 휴먼과학기술센터

연사: 이희승 교수님(연세대 교육과학대학)

초록:

When people use mathematics to model real-life situations, their use of mathematical expressions is often mediated by semantic alignment (Bassok, Chase, & Martin, 1998): The entities in a problem situation evoke semantic relations (e.g., tulips and vases evoke the functionally asymmetric “contain” relation), which people align with analogous mathematical relations (e.g., the non-commutative division operation, tulips/vases). In this talk, I present the evidence that semantic alignment is also involved in the comprehension and use of rational numbers (fractions and decimals). In particular, fractions and decimals are preferentially used to model discrete and continuous entities, respectively. A series of cross-national comparison studies revealed that the alignments found in the United States were generally replicated in South Korea. This alignment between fractions and decimals cannot be attributed to the specifics of education, language, and measurement units, which differ greatly between the United States and South Korea.