The problem with percentages

• Published in: Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological sciences Vol. 373; no. 1740; p. 20160519
• Main Authors: Jacobs Danan, Jennifer A., Gelman, Rochel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England The Royal Society 19.02.2018; The Royal Society Publishing
• Subjects: Approximate Number System; Arithmetic; Bidirectional Mapping; Colleges & universities; Comprehension; Concept Formation; Decimals; Financial Illiteracy; Humans; Knowledge; Learning; Mathematical Concepts; Mathematics; Number theory; Numbers; Numerons; Rational Numbers; Research facilities; Review; Students; Young Adult; arithmetic; bidirectional mapping; rational numbers; approximate number system; financial illiteracy; numerons

A great many students at a major research university make basic conceptual mistakes in responding to simple questions about two successive percentage changes. The mistakes they make follow a pattern already familiar from research on the difficulties that elementary school students have in coming to...