Effects of Digitally Typesetting Mathematics on Working Memory

摘要

Typesetting mathematics proves challenging for many people. In this paper we discuss the results of an experiment comparing working memory interference while transcribing mathematical expressions using both digital applications and handwriting. To measure interference, we used a head-mounted eye-tracker to count the number of times individuals had to refer to a presented expression while transcribing said expression. We also compared the duration of fixations on the mathematical expression being replicated to measure the amount of information encoded into memory during each reference to the stimulus. Results showed a significant difference in the number of transitions necessary to complete the transcription task, such that handwriting the expressions required significantly fewer transitions than digital typesetting. No significant difference was found regarding the average duration of fixation on the stimulus, indicating that participants encoded similar amounts of information during these fixations, regardless of the transcription condi- . tion. This supports the hypothesis that digitally typesetting mathematics causes significant working memory interference. These results help to show why typesetting may cause difficulty for individuals, and should be taken into consideration when working to improve the user interfaces of typesetting applications.