Put you in the problem: Effects of self-pronouns on mathematical problem-solving

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Self-cues, like personal pronouns, influence cognitive processes such as attention and working memory.
• These processing biases may affect performance on cognitively demanding tasks, including mathematical problem-solving.
• Understanding how self-referencing impacts children's learning is crucial for educational interventions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of the self-cue "you" on children's speed and accuracy in solving numerical problems.
• To examine whether this effect is modulated by task difficulty and individual differences in attention and working memory.
• To explore the potential application of self-cues in educational settings for mathematical tasks.

Main Methods:

• A pilot study with 52 children (7-11 years) tested performance on addition/subtraction problems with "you" or "Sam" as referents.
• A main study with 144 children (9-11 years) manipulated problem difficulty (consistent/inconsistent wording).
• Performance was assessed on numerical tasks, alongside attention and working memory measures.

Main Results:

• Children showed a significant accuracy advantage for problems including the self-cue "you" across both studies.
• Speed and accuracy were higher for problems with "you" in the main study, particularly in difficult, inconsistently worded subtraction problems.
• The self-pronoun advantage was not consistently associated with individual differences in attention or working memory capacity.

Conclusions:

• The self-cue "you" enhances numerical processing speed and accuracy in children.
• This effect is more pronounced in challenging mathematical tasks, suggesting a role for attention.
• Self-referencing cues offer a promising strategy for improving children's performance in educational contexts.