The Role Of Cognitive Ability And Preferred Mode Of Processing In Students' Calculus Performance

Keywords

Analytic processing; Calculus performance; Cognitive ability; High school; Preferred mode of processing; Visual processing

Abstract

The present study sought to design calculus tasks to determine students' preference for visual or analytic processing as well as examine the role of preferred mode of processing in calculus performance and its relationship to spatial ability and verbal-logical reasoning ability. Data were collected from 150 high school students who were enrolled in Advanced Placement calculus courses. The measures of preferred mode of processing did not correlate with the measures of spatial ability and verbal-logical reasoning ability, suggesting that cognitive abilities did not predict the students' preference for visual or analytic processing. Multiple regression analysis revealed that spatial visualization ability, verbal-logical reasoning ability, preference for visual processing contributed significantly to the variance in calculus performance. Correlations between calculus performance and the measures of preferred mode processing suggest that the nature and complexity of mathematical tasks might have influenced the students' degree of preference for using visual processing.

Publication Date

1-1-2015

Publication Title

Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education

Volume

11

Issue

5

Number of Pages

1165-1179

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2015.1400a

Socpus ID

84948744160 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84948744160

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