From poor performance to success under stress: working memory, strategy selection, and mathematical problem solving...

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Individual differences in working memory (WM) significantly affect cognitive task performance.
• Understanding how working memory influences mathematical problem-solving strategies is crucial for educational and psychological research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of individual working memory capacity on mathematical strategy selection.
• To examine how high-pressure testing environments alter strategy use in complex mathematical problem-solving.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments were conducted involving multistep mathematical problems.
• Participants' working memory capacity was assessed, and their problem-solving strategies were reported under varying pressure conditions (low vs. high).
• Experiment 2 utilized a task where a simpler strategy was optimal.

Main Results:

• Under low pressure, higher working memory individuals used more complex algorithms, leading to better performance.
• Under high pressure, higher working memory individuals shifted to simpler, less effective strategies, impairing accuracy.
• In Experiment 2, lower working memory individuals performed better on a task favoring simple strategies under low pressure; high working memory individuals adapted to use these simpler strategies under pressure.

Conclusions:

• Working memory availability critically influences the approach to mathematical problems.
• The effectiveness of problem-solving strategies is contingent upon both the nature of the task and the testing environment's pressure.
• Interventions may need to consider individual working memory differences and situational pressures to optimize mathematical learning and performance.