Abstract
The purpose of this article is to study students' responses to non-routine problems which are presented by using solely numerals or symbolic figures. Such figures have no mathematical meaning but just symbolical meaning. Most students understand geometric figures more concrete objects than numerals because geometric figures such as circles and squares can be visualized by the manipulatives in real life. And since students need not consider (unvisible) any operational structure of numerals when they deal with (visible) figures, problems proposed using figures are considered relatively easier to them than those proposed using numerals. Under this assumption, we analyze students' problem solving processes of numeral problems and figural problems, and then find out when students' difficulties arise in the problem solving process and how they response when they feel difficulties. From this experiment, we will suggest several comments which would be considered in the development and application of both numerical and figural problems.