Attending to feeling: Productive benefit to novel mathematics problem solving

What does attention to feeling have to do with solving problems in mathematics? Can feeling be used to navigate a path to a solution? What is meant by a feeling anyway? To what kind of problem does this productive benefit refer? A study of 405 middle school students solving two novel mathematics problems found that individuals utilising a feeling or free-flowing approach to reasoning were more likely to be successful in reaching a solution than those who did not. Indeed, feeling cognitions were found to have both a direct and indirect effect on the generation of a solution depending on whether mainly spatial or verbal processing was required. This finding is consistent with neuroscience research. Problem solving, feeling cognitions, mathematics, causal mode