“Conceptual knowledge thus appears insufficient to allow pupils to invent appropriate procedures to solve such problems. However, longer and reinforced conceptual learning might perhaps lead to improved procedural performance,” they write. In general, students and adults are subject to the “whole number bias”, a tendency to draw incorrect analogies between whole numbers and fractions, the study reports. Students tend to assume that a fraction with higher numbers, such as 6/8 , is greater in magnitude than a fraction with lower numbers, such as 3/4.