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Interactive effects of numerical surface form and operand parity in cognitive arithmetic
Jamie I D Campbell1, Helen R Parker, Nicole L Doetzel
1Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada. Jamie.Campbell@USask.Ca
Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition
|January 23, 2004
Summary
Cognitive arithmetic involves number processing. This study found that number parity (odd-even) influences response times and strategy use in addition and comparison tasks, especially for number words, suggesting interactive processing stages.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psycholinguistics
Background:
- Understanding cognitive arithmetic is crucial for cognitive psychology.
- Previous research has explored number representation and processing in the brain.
- The influence of number properties like parity on arithmetic operations needs further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of number parity (odd-even) on cognitive arithmetic operations.
- To compare the processing of Arabic digits versus English number words in arithmetic tasks.
- To examine the relationship between strategy use and number properties in cognitive arithmetic.
Main Methods:
- Experiment 1: Adults (n=48) performed addition, multiplication, and parity comparisons on digit and word number pairs.
- Experiment 2: Adults (n=50) solved addition problems in digit and word formats, reporting their strategies (retrieval vs. procedural).
- Response times and strategy choices were analyzed in relation to operand parity and format.
Main Results:
- Response time increased with odd operands for addition and comparison, but not multiplication.
- The parity effect was more pronounced for number words than digits in addition.
- Procedural strategies were more frequent for odd addends and word problems.
Conclusions:
- Number parity influences cognitive arithmetic processes, affecting both response times and strategy selection.
- The format of number representation (digits vs. words) interacts with parity effects.
- Problem encoding and answer retrieval in cognitive arithmetic are interactive, not strictly additive, stages.