Sources of developmental change in children's word-problem performance

This study was designed to examine the roles of domain-specific and general information-processing skills in developmental change in children's performance on arithmetic word problems. In 2 studies, arithmetic knowledge, processing time, memory, reading skill, and word-problem performance were measured in 8- to 12-year-olds (N = 120 in Study 1 and N = 155 in Study 2). Word-problem performance was predicted by arithmetic knowledge (times and errors in solving simple addition and subtraction problems) and by general information-processing skills (reading and processing time and, to a lesser extent and less consistently, memory). Results are discussed in relation to the factors that contribute to word-problem skill.