A comparison of updating processes in children good or poor in arithmetic word problem-solving

This study examines the updating ability of poor or good problem solvers. Seventy-eight fourth-graders, 43 good and 35 poor arithmetic word problem-solvers, performed the Updating Test used in Palladino et al. [Palladino, P., Cornoldi, C., De Beni, R., and Pazzaglia F. (2002). Working memory and updating processes in reading comprehension. Memory and Cognition, 29, 344–354.]. The participants listened to wordlists, each comprising 12 words referring to objects or animals of different sizes. At the end of each list participants were asked to recall the 3 or 5 words denoting the smallest objects/animals in the list. Results show that poor problem-solvers recalled fewer correct words and made more intrusion errors (recall of non-target words) than good problem-solvers. Results support the hypothesis that the ability to select and update relevant, and suppress irrelevant information, is related to problem-solving, even when the influence of reading comprehension is controlled for. With reference to Baddeley’s, and other recent WM models [Miyake, A., and Shah, P. (Eds.), (1999). Models of working memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control. New York: Cambridge University Press.], our results point to the idea that problem-solving relies on the central executive for processing and updating information contained in the problems.