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Within-item strategy switching in arithmetic: a comparative study in children.

Eléonore Ardiale1, Patrick Lemaire1

  • 1Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Aix-Marseille Université Marseille, France.

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|December 26, 2013
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Summary

Children can switch computational strategies mid-problem, especially when initially prompted with a less effective method. This ability to switch strategies within items improves with age, showing developmental changes in cognitive flexibility.

Keywords:
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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Development
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Educational Psychology

Background:

  • Children's strategic processing in mathematical tasks is crucial for developing numerical competence.
  • Understanding within-item strategy switching reveals cognitive flexibility and adaptive strategy selection.
  • Previous research has explored strategy use, but less is known about real-time switching during problem-solving.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if children can interrupt strategy execution to switch to a more effective strategy.
  • To determine if the ability to switch strategies within an item improves with age.
  • To examine the factors influencing children's decisions to switch strategies.

Main Methods:

  • Third, fifth, and seventh graders performed a computational estimation task involving two-digit addition.
  • Participants used either a rounding-down or rounding-up strategy, cued for 1,000 ms.
  • They then had the option to continue with the cued strategy or switch to the alternative.

Main Results:

  • Children demonstrated the ability to switch strategies within items.
  • Strategy switching occurred more frequently when initially cued with a poorer strategy.
  • With increasing age, strategy switching decisions were more influenced by the effectiveness of the cued strategy and its difficulty.

Conclusions:

  • Children possess the capacity for within-item strategy switching in computational tasks.
  • Age-related improvements in strategy switching are linked to better evaluation of strategy effectiveness and difficulty.
  • Findings offer insights into the mechanisms of cognitive flexibility and strategy variation in children's mathematical problem-solving.