The Effect of Problem Format on Second Grade Children’s Arithmetic Problem-Solving Performance

In children’s books and textbooks arithmetic problems often include illustrations. It remains unknown how different problem formats and types of illustrations influence children’s arithmetic problem-solving performance. Two hundred and ninety-four 7- to 9-year-old (second grade) children completed booklets with arithmetic problems presented in five different formats with increasing levels of element interactivity: 1) symbolic, 2) bare word problems, 3) word problems accompanied by an unhelpful illustration, 4) word problems accompanied by a helpful illustration and lastly 5) word problems accompanied by an illustration with essential information. We also explored which cognitive skills, domain-general (e.g., working memory) and mathematics-specific skills (e.g. nonsymbolic and symbolic processing and estimation skills) uniquely predict children’s performance on these five different arithmetic problem formats. Our results verify and extend past research. Overall, we found that the format of an arithmetic problem influences children’s problem-solving performance and the type of information included in illustrations is crucial. Symbolic, bare word problems and word problems with illustrations that include helpful information were the easiest for children. But word problems with unhelpful and especially essential information in their illustrations lead to decreased performance. Further, we found that different constellations of domain general and mathematics-specific skills predicted performance across the different types of arithmetic problem formats.