We focused on how children and adults in the U.S. solved pattern tasks and whether strategies and errors changed with age. In Study 1, 90 children (M_age = 5.4 years; 52% female; 88% White) solved a series of pattern abstraction tasks with repeating patterns that varied on 2 dimensions (shape and size). A subset of children (n = 30) also completed a mathematics assessment. Though effects were small, children's accuracy on the pattern items reliably increased with age and positively related to mathematics knowledge. We also demonstrated that (1) children's correct strategies tended to rely on 1 dimension rather than 2, (2) older children were more likely to attend to shape over size, and (3) children's errors often included some structure as opposed to being random. In Study 2, 95 undergraduate students (M_age = 19.5 years; 62% female; 65% White) solved a similar set of pattern tasks and completed a mathematics assessment. Adults’ correct strategies tended to rely on 2 dimensions rather than 1, they were more likely to attend to shape over size, and the proportion of 2-dimension strategy use was related to higher mathematics achievement. Overall, developmental differences emerged in whether and how children and adults attended to structure using their pattern skills.

我们专注于美国儿童和成人如何解决模式任务，以及策略和错误是否会随着年龄的增长而变化。在研究 1 中，90 名儿童（M_年龄 = 5.4 岁；52% 女性；88% 白人）解决了一系列模式抽象任务，这些任务具有在 2 个维度（形状和大小）上变化的重复模式。子集（n = 30) 还完成了数学评估。尽管影响很小，但儿童对模式项目的准确性随着年龄的增长而可靠地增加，并且与数学知识呈正相关。我们还证明了（1）儿童的正确策略往往依赖于 1 维而不是 2 维，（2）年龄较大的儿童更可能关注尺寸过大的形状，以及（3）儿童的错误通常包括一些结构而不是随机的. 在研究 2 中，95 名本科生（M_年龄 = 19.5 年；62% 女性；65% White) 解决了一组类似的模式任务并完成了数学评估。成年人的正确策略倾向于依赖二维而不是一维，他们更倾向于关注形状而不是尺寸，二维策略使用的比例与高等数学成绩有关。总体而言，在儿童和成人是否以及如何使用他们的模式技能参与结构方面出现了发展差异。