When Does the Story Matter? No Evidence for the Foregrounding Hypothesis in Math Story Problems
Math story problems are difficult for many solvers because comprehension of mathematical and linguistic content must occur simultaneously. Across two studies, we attempted to conceptually replicate and extend findings reported by Mattarella-Micke and Beilock (2010, https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.17.1.1...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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PsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Insitute for Psychology
2021-11-01
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| Series: | Journal of Numerical Cognition |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://jnc.psychopen.eu/index.php/jnc/article/view/6053 |
| _version_ | 1797964860370190336 |
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| author | Sabrina M. Di Lonardo Burr Jill Turner Jesse Nietmann Jo-Anne LeFevre |
| author_facet | Sabrina M. Di Lonardo Burr Jill Turner Jesse Nietmann Jo-Anne LeFevre |
| author_sort | Sabrina M. Di Lonardo Burr |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Math story problems are difficult for many solvers because comprehension of mathematical and linguistic content must occur simultaneously. Across two studies, we attempted to conceptually replicate and extend findings reported by Mattarella-Micke and Beilock (2010, https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.17.1.106) and Jarosz and Jaeger (2019, https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3471). Mattarella-Micke and Beilock found that multiplication word problems in which an irrelevant number was associated with the protagonist of the problem (i.e., foregrounded in the text) were solved less accurately than problems in other conditions. Jarosz and Jaeger used similar materials but tested the more general inconsistent-operations hypothesis that association with the protagonist would interfere with multiplication whereas dissociation would interfere with division. They found partial support: When division problems were primed with dissociative scenarios, solvers made more errors, but they failed to replicate the associative findings for multiplication. In the present research, we conducted two studies (Ns = 205 and 359), in which we similarly manipulated whether irrelevant content was associated with or dissociated from the story protagonist. In these studies, we did not find support for either the foregrounding or inconsistent-operations hypotheses. Exploratory error analyses suggested that solvers’ errors were most often the result of calculation difficulties or inappropriate operation choices and were unrelated to the presence of associative or dissociative story elements. Our careful implementation of this manipulation and much greater power to detect effects suggests that the association manipulation in irrelevant text does not influence adults’ performance on simple math story problems. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T01:50:21Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e51efd6044054b44ada7dd5421e2aace |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2363-8761 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T01:50:21Z |
| publishDate | 2021-11-01 |
| publisher | PsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Insitute for Psychology |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Numerical Cognition |
| spelling | doaj.art-e51efd6044054b44ada7dd5421e2aace2023-01-03T06:48:50ZengPsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Insitute for PsychologyJournal of Numerical Cognition2363-87612021-11-017325927410.5964/jnc.6053jnc.6053When Does the Story Matter? No Evidence for the Foregrounding Hypothesis in Math Story ProblemsSabrina M. Di Lonardo Burr0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6338-9621Jill Turner1Jesse Nietmann2Jo-Anne LeFevre3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1927-7734Department of Cognitive Science, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, CanadaDepartment of Cognitive Science, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, CanadaDepartment of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, CanadaDepartment of Cognitive Science, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, CanadaMath story problems are difficult for many solvers because comprehension of mathematical and linguistic content must occur simultaneously. Across two studies, we attempted to conceptually replicate and extend findings reported by Mattarella-Micke and Beilock (2010, https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.17.1.106) and Jarosz and Jaeger (2019, https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3471). Mattarella-Micke and Beilock found that multiplication word problems in which an irrelevant number was associated with the protagonist of the problem (i.e., foregrounded in the text) were solved less accurately than problems in other conditions. Jarosz and Jaeger used similar materials but tested the more general inconsistent-operations hypothesis that association with the protagonist would interfere with multiplication whereas dissociation would interfere with division. They found partial support: When division problems were primed with dissociative scenarios, solvers made more errors, but they failed to replicate the associative findings for multiplication. In the present research, we conducted two studies (Ns = 205 and 359), in which we similarly manipulated whether irrelevant content was associated with or dissociated from the story protagonist. In these studies, we did not find support for either the foregrounding or inconsistent-operations hypotheses. Exploratory error analyses suggested that solvers’ errors were most often the result of calculation difficulties or inappropriate operation choices and were unrelated to the presence of associative or dissociative story elements. Our careful implementation of this manipulation and much greater power to detect effects suggests that the association manipulation in irrelevant text does not influence adults’ performance on simple math story problems.https://jnc.psychopen.eu/index.php/jnc/article/view/6053word problemsmath performancenumerical interferenceextraneous elements |
| spellingShingle | Sabrina M. Di Lonardo Burr Jill Turner Jesse Nietmann Jo-Anne LeFevre When Does the Story Matter? No Evidence for the Foregrounding Hypothesis in Math Story Problems Journal of Numerical Cognition word problems math performance numerical interference extraneous elements |
| title | When Does the Story Matter? No Evidence for the Foregrounding Hypothesis in Math Story Problems |
| title_full | When Does the Story Matter? No Evidence for the Foregrounding Hypothesis in Math Story Problems |
| title_fullStr | When Does the Story Matter? No Evidence for the Foregrounding Hypothesis in Math Story Problems |
| title_full_unstemmed | When Does the Story Matter? No Evidence for the Foregrounding Hypothesis in Math Story Problems |
| title_short | When Does the Story Matter? No Evidence for the Foregrounding Hypothesis in Math Story Problems |
| title_sort | when does the story matter no evidence for the foregrounding hypothesis in math story problems |
| topic | word problems math performance numerical interference extraneous elements |
| url | https://jnc.psychopen.eu/index.php/jnc/article/view/6053 |
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