Time estimation: children's and adults' performance and strategies

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Published: Mar 31, 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/dial.25323
Keywords:
Measurement estimation time estimation standard and non-standard measurement units time duration
Δέσποινα Δεσλή
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8532-591X
Ευδοξία Ξενίδου
Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to examine the performance of adults and primary school children in the estimation of time and the strategies they used. For this purpose, 30 adults and 32 Υear 6 students participated in the study. Three tasks were designed and presented to all participants asking them to: a) estimate the time they need to complete a game making first a prospective estimate and then a retrospective estimate (Task 1: «Prospective and Retrospective Estimates»), b) estimate the duration for daily events (Task 2: «Estimation of duration for specific familiar actions») and c) indicate three actions of specific duration (Task 3: «Indicating actions of specific duration»). Participants were given with standard and non-standard measurement units, in order to achieve their estimations. It was found that adults’ and children’s rates of success were similar. In Task 1, they were all more successful when providing retrospective estimates rather than prospective estimates. Their estimates were mainly based on their intuition and on reference points of their knowledge, and much less on their use of standard measurement units for time measurement or the minute knowledge. In Task 2, both adults and children provided more successful estimations for actions of short duration compared to actions of long duration. In Task 3, participants succeeded in over 65% of estimations for actions of long duration. These findings highlight the need to support time estimation ability from early age.

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Author Biographies
Δέσποινα Δεσλή, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Associate Professor
Ευδοξία Ξενίδου
Εκπαιδευτικός Πρωτοβάθμιας Εκπαίδευσης
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