The Influence Of Cognitive Style And Central Executive Load On Strategy Use Of Computational Estimation

The ability of strategy use is the most important ability in individual the problem solvingprocess. Studies have shown that, there were many factors which affected the strategy use suchas specific situational factors ( instructions, feedback etc. ), characteristic factors of theproblems ( such as the complexity of the problem, the ways of presentation ) and individualdifference factors ( such as cognitive style, the central executive, emotions etc. ) and so on. Tothe field of mathematics, the capability of calculation is the core component of individual’smathematical ability. And as one of two basic arithmetic calculation abilities, the internationalschools have paid attention to computational estimation. Therefore, studies for estimatingstrategy have certain practical significance. At present, studies on strategy use have been mainlyconcentrated on situational and problem characteristic factors. Research on individualdifference factors is still rare. Numerous studies found that the cognitive style can affect thestrategy use of learning directly. And working memory is closely related to informationprocessing, so the individual strategy plays a definite restrictive function. As the corecomponents of working memory, the central executive system is chiefly responsible forcognitive coordination, resource allocation, strategy choice, processing in control. So thecentral executive system will also participate in the processing of the strategy use.Strategy use included two stages which was strategy execution and strategic choice. Nowfor the research methods of estimating strategy, the method of choice/no choice was proposedby Siegler and Lemaire (1997). It is a cognitive strategy research paradigm, and it can fullyreflect the situation of strategy use at one cognitive task. At present, this method has been usedin the research of strategy choice successfully. Therefore, this study will take estimate task as abreakthrough point, and utilize the choice/no choice method and eye movement technique,through the dual task paradigm directly for controlling the central executive system to researchhow the cognitive style and the central executive system affect the use of strategy frombehavioral and eye movement level. The results are as follows:1. Field-independence participants chose more upward adjustment strategy than the field-dependent participants.2. In the speed and accuracy of strategy execution, upward adjustment strategy muchslower than down-regulation strategies and the correct rate was significantly lower than thereduction strategy. Field-independent participants were faster than field-dependent subjects. Thecentral executive load is higher, the slower the speed of execution; but in the correct rate has nosignificant difference. In the upward adjustment strategy, the differences between high centralexecutive load conditions and other central executive load condition become greater. Arithmeticskills not only affect the strategy execution speed, but also the accuracy of strategy execution.Take the eye saccadic distance in the strategy of different cognitive styles test in thedownward adjustment for the baseline, the eye saccadic distance of the field-independenceparticipants is the longest. While estimation problems present in a vertical format, the eyesaccadic distance differences between different cognitive styles will increase.3. Under the conditions of the best strategic choice, strategy choice speed offield-independent participants is faster. Higher central executive load is, slower the speed ofstrategy use is; but there is no difference in the correct rate. In the high central executive underload, either in the horizontal or vertical presentation, the effects of cognitive style are especiallysignificant, while not in other central executive load conditions. In the central executive loadconditions, the difference of correct rate between different cognitive styles is very significant;but when there is no central executive load, there is no significant difference on the correct ratebetween participants with different cognitive styles. Arithmetic skills not only affect the speedof the strategy use but also the accuracy.IA2 and IA4 are key areas of strategy selection in computational estimation and IA1 andIA3 are effective areas in computational estimation strategy implementation. There arenoteworthy differences in the fixation duration and fixation times and regression times indifferent interest areas, IA1 and IA3 have the longest duration, the most times and the mostregression times. Load situation takes more fixation times than no load conditions. Arithmeticskills not only affect the fixation duration, but also the times of regression in different interestareas.4. The adaptive use of strategies in estimation of field-independent participants isobviously better than the field-dependence ones. 5. The central executive may affect the choice of strategies by the cognitive style.