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Lorem Ipsum Dolor Spring 2016
13
Effect of Auditory Working Memory Training in Students with
Visual Impairments on Mathematic Problem Solving
Dake Zhang
1
& Yi Ding
2
1. Rutgers University, Assistant Professor of Special Education
dake.zhang@gse.rutgers.edu
2. Fordham University, Assistant Professor of School Psychology
yding4@fordham.edu
There is an increased attention in interventions for students with general mathematic
learning difficulties. However, there is limited research addressing the special difficulties in
mathematic problem solving in students with visual impairments (VI). The lack of visual cues
makes mathematic problem solving more difficult for individuals with VI than others.
Given the limited supply of Braille publications, audio reading materials are
increasingly popular among students with VI. A common difficulty encountered by people with
VI when solving mathematic problems with audio materials, however, is the lengthy auditory
representation of mathematic problems. For example, a two-step arithmetic problem "(5 + 6) ×
8" may be easily written as a combination of two operations of three numbers but may be read
"five plus six and then times eight" which contains lots of sounds and semantic information.
Also, in some instances, auditory expressions can be ambiguous (e.g., "5 plus six times eight"
can be either "(5 + 6) × 8" or "5 + 6 × 8") necessitating additional clarification information. In
addition, when reading visual materials, readers without VI are able to go back to previous text
to retrieve needed information. For example, to solve "5 + 6 × 8", someone without VI does not
have to remember the first addend 5 because he/she can always look back to check the first
addend after calculating 6 × 8. In contrast, it is almost impossible for individuals with VI to
"listen back" to retrieve needed information. Specifically, if an individual with VI cannot
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