Mathematical word problem solving is influenced by various characteristics of the task and the person solving it. Yet, previous research has rarely related these characteristics to holistically answer which word problem requires which set of individual cognitive skills. In the present study, we conducted a secondary data analysis on a dataset of N = 1282 undergraduate students solving six mathematical word problems from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Previous results had indicated substantial variability in the contribution of individual cognitive skills to the correct solution of the different tasks. Here, we exploratively reanalyzed the data to investigate which task characteristics may account for this variability, considering verbal, arithmetic, spatial, and general reasoning skills simultaneously. Results indicate that verbal skills were the most consistent predictor of successful word problem solving in these tasks, arithmetic skills only predicted the correct solution of word problems containing calculations, spatial skills predicted solution rates in the presence of a visual representation, and general reasoning skills were more relevant in simpler problems that could be easily solved using heuristics. We discuss possible implications, emphasizing how word problems may differ with regard to the cognitive skills required to solve them correctly.

数学单词问题的解决受任务的各种特征和解决问题的人的影响。然而，之前的研究很少将这些特征与整体回答哪个单词问题需要哪一组个人认知技能联系起来。在本研究中，我们对N = 1282 名本科生的数据集进行了二次数据分析，这些学生解决了国际学生评估计划中的六个数学单词问题（比萨）。先前的结果表明，个人认知技能对不同任务的正确解决方案的贡献存在很大差异。在这里，我们探索性地重新分析了数据，以调查哪些任务特征可以解释这种可变性，同时考虑语言、算术、空间和一般推理技能。结果表明，在这些任务中，语言技能是成功解决单词问题的最一致的预测因素，算术技能只能预测包含计算的单词问题的正确解决方案，空间技能在存在视觉表示的情况下预测解决率，一般推理技能是在使用启发式方法可以轻松解决的更简单的问题中更相关。我们讨论可能的影响，