Modifying Cognitive Strategies for Comparing Proportions

February 18, 2026 updated by: Michelle Hurst, PhD

Changing Quantitative Reasoning Across Development

The goal of this study is to understand the cognitive processes underlying quantitative and relational reasoning, including the understanding of mathematical information (e.g., numbers, proportions, percentages, geometry) and related relational concepts (e.g., analogies, the concepts same/different), as well as how people's reasoning can be changed by external factors. The main question it aims to answer is:

How does the introduction of a secondary task affect the behavior of children and adults when reasoning about proportions in different formats? Participants will be asked to make judgements about images with and without the presence of a distractor task.

Study Overview

Status

Enrolling by invitation

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

300

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • New Jersey
      • Piscataway, New Jersey, United States, 08854
        • Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Typically developing people within the target age range (either 8-years-old OR 18- to 64-years-old) for the study version

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Individuals with known developmental or cognitive disorders
  • Participants or parents of participants must speak/read sufficient English to read and complete the informed consent document

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Basic Science
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Proportion Judgements
This is the sole arm of the study. All participants will be observed under normal conditions and then those same participants will undergo a behavioral intervention.
Behavioral: Verbal Interference Task
During the second half of the study, participants will undergo an interference task such as repetition of the word "the"; or shadowing a radio broadcast in order to increase cognitive load and disrupt the use of a mental workspace.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Overall Performance
Time Frame: After enrollment in a single study session
A proportion correct will be calculated, with a score closer to 1 indicating more questions answered correctly. Reaction time will also be tracked, with a faster reaction time indicating ease and/or efficiency with the task.
After enrollment in a single study session

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Michelle Hurst, PhD

Collaborators

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

October 21, 2024

Primary Completion (Estimated)

October 1, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

October 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 8, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 8, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

October 10, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 20, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 18, 2026

Last Verified

February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • Pro2023001794
  • R00HD104990 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Plan Description

All de-identified participant responses to all measures, as well as de-identified demographics (e.g., age, gender) will be made publicly available on a data repository.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

Beginning when the results are published (if not earlier) with no planned end date

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

De-identified data will be publicly available under a creative commons license only requesting attribution.

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • ANALYTIC_CODE

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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