Working Memory Inequality

The working memory is now a vital field of cognitive psychology. Overseas and domestic scholars have had many research achievements about all parts of the working memory system through widely test and research. The study of mathematical cognition mainly focuses on the arithmetic cognition field, while little was known about the relation in the algebraic field.The purposes were to explore the role of working memory in the verification of inequality questions. This research consisted two experiments in which dual-task experiment methodology was used. Main tasks were simple inequality questions (ax ≠b) in experiment 1, and were complex inequality questions (ax+b≠c) in experiment 2. Subjects were asked to verify inequality questions in four kinds of conditions that are control, concurrent articulate suppression, concurrent hand tapping, and concurrent random interval decision.The results of experiment 1 showed that: (1) the central executive system had a vital role in solving simple inequality problems; (2) the role of the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketch pad was not involved in solving simple inequality questions; (3) the transform of coefficient "a" has a negative effect in solving simple inequality questions; (4) the transformation of the unequal sign > and sign < had an important role in simple inequality questions. The results of experiment 2 showed that: (1) the central executive system had a vital role in the verification of complex inequality questions; (2) the role of the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketch pad was not involved in the verification of complex inequality questions; (3) the transformation of coefficient "a" had a larger effect on the verification of complex inequality questions; (4) the transformation of the unequal sign > and sign < had a more important role in the verification of complex inequality questions.These results of experiment 1 and 2 suggested that the central executive system play a important role in solving inequality problems; the role of the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketch pad isn't involved in solving complex inequality problems; the transform of coefficient "a" has negative effect in solving inequality questions and the more complex the inequality questions are, the more significant the influence is; the transform of the unequal sign > and sign < has a important role in solving inequality problems and the more complex the inequality problems are, the more significant the influence is. The working memory is a limited temporary information storage and process resource. When working capacity is increased, the process time will increase and the reaction right rate will reduce. Although the research of working memory functions in arithmetic cognitive field has continued for a long time, the different opinions still exist. This study is just a try and the results need more research to be confirmed and modified at a late time.