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.

最近的文献表明，比例推理的发展比传统假设的要早。它还表明，在加法推理和乘法推理都适用的任务中，一些孩子偏爱加法关系，而另一些孩子则偏爱乘法关系。在这项研究中，我们调查了 5 到 8 岁儿童的加法或乘法偏好如何与小学三年级早期比例推理问题的表现的个体差异相关，就在正式教学开始之前。结果表明，这些幼儿中的许多人表现出加性偏好，有些已经表现出乘性偏好。不仅是少数已经喜欢乘法关系或在加法和乘法答案之间切换的孩子，而且表现出附加偏好的儿童在早期比例推理任务中的表现明显优于对关系没有或不一致关注的儿童。似乎孩子越早表现出附加偏好，他们在 3 年级的比例推理问题上的表现就越好。令人惊讶的是，孩子们在 3 年级的比例推理问题中几乎没有犯任何附加错误，而附加偏好反而与对早期比例推理问题的更正确推理。讨论了理论、方法和教育意义。似乎孩子越早表现出附加偏好，他们在 3 年级的比例推理问题上的表现就越好。令人惊讶的是，孩子们在 3 年级的比例推理问题中几乎没有犯任何附加错误，而附加偏好反而与对早期比例推理问题的更正确推理。讨论了理论、方法和教育意义。似乎孩子越早表现出附加偏好，他们在 3 年级的比例推理问题上的表现就越好。令人惊讶的是，孩子们在 3 年级的比例推理问题中几乎没有犯任何附加错误，而附加偏好反而与对早期比例推理问题的更正确推理。讨论了理论、方法和教育意义。