Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

This study examined how changes in children's problem encoding influenced their strategy selection. Fourth-grade students {N=51} solved six mathematical equivalence problems (e.g., 3+4+5=_+5) in a pretest. Children's problem encoding was then manipulated in one of two ways, or was not manipulated in a Control group. In the Subtle group, children solved four additional problems with the equal sign highlighted in red. In the Direct group, children solved the same four problems, and were directed to notice the equal sign in each problem. Children then solved six problems in a posttest, and did so again four weeks later in a follow-up test. The strategies children conveyed in their spoken and gestured explanations were assessed. Children in the Direct group considered multiple strategies for the posttest problems more often than children in the other groups, as reflected in their spoken and gestured explanations. Children in the Direct group were also most likely to generate gestured strategies and to abandon verbal strategies over the course of the study. These findings suggest that changes in problem encoding lead to changes in strategy selection.