Deaf college students' comprehension of relational language in arithmetic compare problems

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Deaf Education

Background:

• Investigates mathematical word problem solving in deaf college students.
• Examines the impact of linguistic consistency on arithmetic problem-solving.
• Builds upon the consistency hypothesis (Lewis & Mayer, 1987) from studies with hearing students.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if deaf students are susceptible to reversal errors in math word problems.
• To assess the influence of relational statement consistency on error types.
• To explore the role of reading ability in performance on these problems.

Main Methods:

• Deaf college students solved compare word problems with consistent or inconsistent relational statements.
• Problems varied in marked (e.g., 'less than') versus unmarked (e.g., 'more than') relational terms.
• Student performance was analyzed based on error types (reversal, goal-monitoring, multiple) and reading ability.

Main Results:

• Deaf students committed more reversal errors when relational statements contradicted the required arithmetic operation.
• This effect was stronger with marked relational terms.
• Higher reading ability correlated with fewer goal-monitoring errors, multiple errors, and blank problems, but not reversal errors.

Conclusions:

• The consistency hypothesis extends to deaf college students' math word problem solving.
• Linguistic inconsistencies, particularly with marked terms, significantly increase reversal errors.
• Reading proficiency mitigates some cognitive load in problem-solving but not language-induced arithmetic errors.