Abstract
Three explanations of adults’ mental addition performance, a counting-based model, a direct-access model with a backup counting procedure, and a network retrieval model, were tested. Whereas important predictions of the two counting models were not upheld, reaction times (RTs) to simple addition problems were consistent with the network retrieval model. RT both increased with problem size and was progressively attenuated to false stimuli as the split (numerical difference between the false and correct sums increased. For large problems, the extreme level of split (13) yielded an RT advantage for false over true problems, suggestive of a global evaluation process operating in parallel with retrieval. RTs to the more complex addition problems in Experiment 2 exhibited a similar pattern of significance and, in regression analyses, demonstrated that complex addition (e.g., 14+12=26) involves retrieval of the simple addition components (4+2=6). The network retrieval/decision model is discussed in terms of its fit to the present data, and predictions concerning priming facilitation and inhibition are specified. The similarities between mental arithmetic results and the areas of semantic memory and mental comparisons indicate both the usefulness of the network approach to mental arithmetic and the usefulness of mental arithmetic to cognitive psychology.
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Ashcraft, M. H., & Fierman, B.Mental addition in third-, fourth-, and sixth-graders. Unpublished manuscript, 1980.
Ashcraft, M. H., Stazyk, E. H., & Fierman, B.Network representations of mental arithmetic. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Phoenix, Arizona, November 1979.
Duffy, S. A., & Fisher, D. L.The organization and processing of multiplication facts. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, St. Louis, Missouri, May 1980.
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Ashcraft, M.H., Stazyk, E.H. Menatal addition: A test of three verification models. Mem Cogn 9, 185–196 (1981). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03202334
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03202334