Our new paper published in Cognition

We’re thrilled to announce the publication of a new research paper by Michał Obidziński, Nina Bażela, and Mateusz Hohol in Cognition. The paper, titled “More gist, better math: A Fuzzy-Trace Theory-based investigation of the relationship between long-term memory and mathematical skills”, explores how different types of memory processes contribute to mathematical abilities, offering new insights into the cognitive foundations of math performance. The research was funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Poland, under the grant NdS-II/SN/0332/2024/01 (Science for Society program).

Research higlights

• Long-term memory matters: Despite its importance, the role of long-term memory in mathematical abilities has been largely overlooked.
• More than just numbers: Numerical memory performance is associated not only with math reasoning and arithmetic fluency, but also with students’ math self-concept.
• Gist wins over precision: Memory for the general meaning of numbers (gist-based processes) is more strongly linked to math skills than exact recall (verbatim).
• A fuzzy lens on math cognition: Fuzzy-Trace Theory combined with multinomial modeling provide a powerful framework for understanding the nature of mathematical skills.

Find the paper in the open access here

Cite as:

Obidziński, M., Bażela, N., & Hohol, M. (2025). More gist, better math: Fuzzy-trace theory-based investigation of the relationship between long-term memory and mathematical skills. Cognition, 263, 106212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106212