COMPREHENSION OF ARITHMETIC WORD-PROBLEMS - A COMPARISON OF SUCCESSFUL AND UNSUCCESSFUL PROBLEM SOLVERS

It is proposed that when solving an arithmetic word problem, unsuccess ful problem solvers base their solution plan on numbers and keywords t hat they select from the problem (the direct translation strategy), wh ereas successful problem solvers construct a model of the situation de scribed in the problem and base their solution plan on this model (the problem-model strategy). Evidence for this hypothesis was obtained in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, the eye fixations of successful and u nsuccessful problem solvers on words and numbers in the problem statem ent were compared. In Experiment 2, the degree to which successful and unsuccessful problem solvers remember the meaning and exact wording o f word problems was examined.