Interaction between knowledge and context: The detrimental effects of everyday contexts on mathematical understanding

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of sparse vs real
contexts on the understanding of abstract mathematical concepts regarding the interpretation
of linear graphs. Four experiments addressed this issue: two focused on children's
performance (N  124 and 35, respectively; mean age about 12 years old) and
two focused on adults (N  165 and 169, respectively). In all four experiments subjects
were asked to interpret isomorphic linear graphs. The tasks were embedded in sparse
vs real contexts. Taken together, results of all four experiments showed that a sparse
context facilitated understanding of abstract mathematical concepts more than real
contexts. In addition, content analysis of students' responses showed that students
activated different knowledge structures in solving the isomorphic tasks embedded in
the various contexts. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are
discussed