Problem-Solving Strategy Selection in Relation to Formal Schooling

A study of the literacy-generated cognitive cultural gap was carried out on subjects of different literacy background ranging from illiterate individuals to university students in different majors. The characteristics that aid literate and illiterate people in solving mathematical problems efficiently were identified and analyzed. A field research was carried out in the field of algorithmic problem solving and in the reasoning domain, followed by constructing a software cognitive model to represent the findings. Findings showed that in both domains cognitive ability did not improve with level of literacy, rather the formality of the problem solving strategy selected demonstrating a link between these two domains.