| Various factors proposed to be involved in mathematical word problem solving were investigated. Previous research has emphasized the role of language comprehension in solving math word problems. Specifically, it has been shown that children often have trouble representing or translating a word problem into mathematical terms, although the source of translation difficulty has not been determined. Extracting relevant information from the text of a word problem has been identified as one of the processes required to accurately translate a word problem into a mathematical equation. Being able to extract relevant information requires the solver to suppress or inhibit misleading, irrelevant information so that it does not interfere with solution of the problem. The present study examined the contributions of language abilities, computational skills, memory capacity, and attentional inhibition to the solution of mathematical word problems in second grade children. Children were asked to solve three different types of mathematical word problems, each requiring a different level of inhibition. Each type of problem differed from the other types; both in the way they were solved by the children, and in their relations to the other variables. Reading comprehension was found to be a strong predictor of math word problem solving ability in the present study, confirming the findings of previous research. Computational ability and working memory were also contributors to the solution of math word problems. Attentional inhibition was also found to play a role in the solution of some of the math word problems. Findings are discussed in terms of the relative contributions of each variable to the solution of each type of problem. |
