The mathematical flexibility of college students: The role of cognitive and affective factors.

On average, participants were only able to provide little more than three unique strategies beyond the primary strategy taught in K-12 classrooms. Measures of math anxiety, math identity, need for cognition, and working memory were all unrelated to flexibility. However, student perceptions of how many possible solutions exist were significantly related to flexibility. These results provide evidence for a change-resistance account and provide further evidence that math flexibility is a unique construct.