Inhibitory control in mathematical thinking, learning and problem solving: a survey

Inhibitory control—the ability to ignore salient but unhelpful stimuli and responses—seems to be important for learning mathematics. For instance there is now robust evidence that performance on classic measures of inhibition, such as the Stroop Task, correlate with school-level mathematics achievement. At the same time, a great deal of theoretical work in mathematics education research seems to reference the notion of inhibitory control, albeit...