When Does the Story Matter? No Evidence for the Foregrounding Hypothesis in Math Story Problems
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Di Lonardo Burr, Sabrina M.
Turner, Jill
Nietmann, Jesse
LeFevre, Jo-Anne
Abstract / Description
Math story problems are difficult for many solvers because comprehension of mathematical and linguistic content must occur simultaneously. Across two studies, we attempted to conceptually replicate and extend findings reported by Mattarella-Micke and Beilock (2010) and Jarosz and Jaeger (2019). Mattarella-Micke and Beilock found that multiplication word problems in which an irrelevant number was associated with the protagonist of the problem (i.e., foregrounded in the text) were solved less accurately than problems in other conditions. Jarosz and Jaeger used similar materials but tested the more general inconsistent-operations hypothesis that association with the protagonist would interfere with multiplication whereas dissociation would interfere with division. They found partial support: When division problems were primed with dissociative scenarios, solvers made more errors, but they failed to replicate the associative findings for multiplication. In the present research, we conducted two studies (Ns = 205 and 359), in which we similarly manipulated whether irrelevant content was associated with or dissociated from the story protagonist. In these studies, we did not find support for either the foregrounding or inconsistent-operations hypotheses. Exploratory error analyses suggested that solvers’ errors were most often the result of calculation difficulties or inappropriate operation choices and were unrelated to the presence of associative or dissociative story elements. Our careful implementation of this manipulation and much greater power to detect effects suggests that the association manipulation in irrelevant text does not influence adults’ performance on simple math story problems.
Keyword(s)
word problems math performance numerical interference extraneous elementsPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2021-04-10
Journal title
Journal of Numerical Cognition
Publisher
PsychArchives
Publication status
acceptedVersion
Review status
reviewed
Is version of
Citation
Di Lonardo Burr, S. M., Turner, J., Nietmann, J., & LeFevre, J.-A. (in press). When does the story matter? No evidence for the foregrounding hypothesis in math story problems [Author accepted manuscript]. Journal of Numerical Cognition. http://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.4765
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Di_Lonardo_Burr_Turner_Nietmann_et_al._2021_Math_Story_JNC_AAM.pdfAdobe PDF - 278.64KBMD5: 58e6fa6e36b22ba5dc21d9818ca78ab3Description: Author Accepted Manuscript
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There are no other versions of this object.
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Di Lonardo Burr, Sabrina M.
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Turner, Jill
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Nietmann, Jesse
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Author(s) / Creator(s)LeFevre, Jo-Anne
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2021-04-10T07:59:03Z
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Made available on2021-04-10T07:59:03Z
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Date of first publication2021-04-10
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Abstract / DescriptionMath story problems are difficult for many solvers because comprehension of mathematical and linguistic content must occur simultaneously. Across two studies, we attempted to conceptually replicate and extend findings reported by Mattarella-Micke and Beilock (2010) and Jarosz and Jaeger (2019). Mattarella-Micke and Beilock found that multiplication word problems in which an irrelevant number was associated with the protagonist of the problem (i.e., foregrounded in the text) were solved less accurately than problems in other conditions. Jarosz and Jaeger used similar materials but tested the more general inconsistent-operations hypothesis that association with the protagonist would interfere with multiplication whereas dissociation would interfere with division. They found partial support: When division problems were primed with dissociative scenarios, solvers made more errors, but they failed to replicate the associative findings for multiplication. In the present research, we conducted two studies (Ns = 205 and 359), in which we similarly manipulated whether irrelevant content was associated with or dissociated from the story protagonist. In these studies, we did not find support for either the foregrounding or inconsistent-operations hypotheses. Exploratory error analyses suggested that solvers’ errors were most often the result of calculation difficulties or inappropriate operation choices and were unrelated to the presence of associative or dissociative story elements. Our careful implementation of this manipulation and much greater power to detect effects suggests that the association manipulation in irrelevant text does not influence adults’ performance on simple math story problems.en_US
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Publication statusacceptedVersion
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Review statusreviewed
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SponsorshipThis project was funded by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada through a Discovery Grant and an Equipment Grant to Jo-Anne LeFevre and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council doctoral fellowship to Sabrina Di Lonardo Burr.en_US
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CitationDi Lonardo Burr, S. M., Turner, J., Nietmann, J., & LeFevre, J.-A. (in press). When does the story matter? No evidence for the foregrounding hypothesis in math story problems [Author accepted manuscript]. Journal of Numerical Cognition. http://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.4765
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ISSN2363-8761
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/4205
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.4765
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Language of contentengen_US
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PublisherPsychArchivesen_US
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.5964/jnc.6053
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.6105
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Is related tohttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.5220
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Is related tohttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.6105
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Keyword(s)word problemsen_US
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Keyword(s)math performanceen_US
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Keyword(s)numerical interferenceen_US
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Keyword(s)extraneous elementsen_US
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleWhen Does the Story Matter? No Evidence for the Foregrounding Hypothesis in Math Story Problemsen_US
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DRO typearticleen_US
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Journal titleJournal of Numerical Cognition
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Visible tag(s)PsychOpen GOLDen_US
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Visible tag(s)Accepted Manuscripten_US