A Psychological Model Applied to Mathematical Problem Solving

Students' approaches to mathematical problem solving vary greatly with each other. The main objective of the current study was to compare students' performance with different thinking styles (divergent vs. convergent) and working memory capacity upon mathematical problem solving. A sample of 150 high school girls, ages 15 to 16, was studied based on Hudson's test and Digit Span Backwards test as well as a math exam. The results indicated that the effect of thinking styles and working memory on students' performance in problem solving was significant. Moreover, students with divergent thinking style and high working memory capacity showed higher performance than ones with convergent thinking style. The implications of these results on math teaching and problem solving emphasizes that cognitive predictor variable (Convergent/Divergent) and working memory, in particular could be challenging and a rather distinctive factor for students.