Spurious Correlations in Mathematical Thinking

How does detection of correlational structure affect mathematical thinking and learning? When does correlational information lead to erroneous problem solving? Are experienced students susceptible to misleading correlations? This work attempts to answer these questions by examining a source of systematic errors termed the spurious-correlation effect. This effect is hypothesized to occur when a student perceives a correlation between an irrelevant feature in a problem and the algorithm used for solving that problem and then proceeds to execute the algorithm when detecting the feature in a different problem. In this research, we investigated whether students encode spurious correlations in memory and exhibit them during the learning process leading to ineffectual problem solving. Findings suggest that even experienced students rely on surface-structural feature-algorithm correlations for solving new problems. Implications for teaching are discussed.