Working Memory, Problem Representation For Mathematical Problem Solve The Impact Of Research

This study investigated the effect of working memory capacity and problem representation on mathematics problem solving performance of 124 grade six students in primary school. This study explored 2×6×2 mixed design. The first between-subject factor included two level, high capacity group and low capacity group. The within-subject factor, included rehearsal representation, schematic representation, pictorial representation, direct translation, semantic construction analysis and other representations. The second between-subject factor included boys and girls. The results showed that:1.The main effect of working memory is significant and this significant difference explained that the higher capacity the better mathematics problem solving performance; the lower capacity the worse performance.2. The main effect of problem representation types is significant and this significant difference explained that with schematic representation or semantic construction analysis students had better performance than students with other representations; direct translation, rehearsal representation, pictorial representation or other representation types had no significant differences in performances.3. The main effect of gender is significant and this significant difference explained that boys had better performance than girls.4.The difference between the numbers of representations that was used by students was significant. The order is schematic representation, semantic construction analysis, direct translation, rehearsal representation, other representation types and pictorial representation.5.The number of the representation used by students was not significantly related to working memory capacity, but the valid use of the representation was significantly related to working memory capacity.6. The number of the representation used by students and the valid use of the representation was not significantly related to gender.