ArticleCognitive processing2020
The interaction of linguistic and arithmetic factors affects adult performance on arithmetic word problems.
Article in Cognitive processing, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Mathematics Anxiety-Complexity Effect in Word Problems.Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) · 2026Article
- Can't help processing numbers with text: Eye-tracking evidence for simultaneous instead of sequential processing of text and numbers in arithmetic word problems.Psychological research · 2025Article
- The structure correspondence hypothesis predicts how word and sentence in language correlate with term and principle in mathematics.Cognitive processing · 2024Article
- Cognitive and socioeconomic factors that influence the mathematical problem-solving skills of students.Heliyon · 2023Article
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5 authors.
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Abstract
Performance on word problems is influenced by linguistic and arithmetic factors, and by their interaction. To study these factors and interactions, we manipulated linguistic and arithmetic factors independently in a within-participant design that included complexity parameters (a) in the domain of arithmetic: carry/borrow (no-carry/borrow vs. carry/borrow), operation (addition vs. subtraction), (b) in the domain of linguistics: nominalization (nominalized vs. verbalized form), and (c) linking the two domains: lexical consistency (linguistic predicate locally consistent vs. inconsistent with mathematical operation). Response times of 25 students solving 320 one-step word problems were measured. All four factors showed a main effect on response times, and interactions between linguistic and arithmetic factors affected response times. These interactions were observed when the linguistic and arithmetic factors were conceptually linked. Our results highlight that not only the linguistic and arithmetic complexities of an item contribute to the difficulty of a word problem, but linguistic and arithmetic factors interact. We discuss the theoretical implications for the numerical and the linguistic domain as well as the possible impact of domain-general characteristics, such as working memory limitations as a potential reason for the observed interactions between numerical and linguistic attributes.
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