It Takes Nine Days to Iron a Shirt: The Development of Cognitive Estimation Skills in School Age Children

Abstract

Data are presented for 315 elementary school-aged children (K–11) who took the Biber Cognitive Estimation Test, a 20-item test with five estimation questions in each of four domains: quantity, time/duration, weight, and distance/length. Performance showed significant development yearly until around the age of nine years, with much slower development subsequently. No gender effects were found. Age and fund of knowledge correlated with overall test performance. Fund of information accounted for a large proportion of the variance in estimation skills for children 8 years and under, but not for children 9 years and older. Since estimation skills require retrieval and manipulation of relevant knowledge and inhibition of impulsive responding and are necessary in many everyday tasks, it was anticipated that this test may provide a useful measure of judgment and estimations and may correlate with other executive skills in school-aged children.

The authors wish to acknowledge Rachel L. Alpert, Jeff M. Venezia, Stephanie Pocius, and Dara A. Ambrose at the University of Connecticut for their assistance in running the study, as well as the staff, faculty, and students from the participating schools. Portions of this research were presented at the annual meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society, Chicago, IL, February, 2001.