Similarity interference in learning and retrieving arithmetic facts

Storing the solution of simple calculations in long-term memory is an important learning in primary school that is subsequently essential in adult daily living. While most children succeed in storing arithmetic facts to which they have been trained at school, huge individual differences are reported, particularly in children with developmental dyscalculia, who show a severe and persistent deficit in arithmetic facts learning. This chapter reports important advances in the understanding of the development of an arithmetic facts network and focuses on the detrimental effect of similarity interference. First, at the retrieval stage, connectionist models highlighted that the similarity of the neighbor problems in the arithmetic facts network creates interference. More recently, the similarity interference during the learning stage was pointed out in arithmetic facts learning. The interference parameter, that captures the proactive interference that a problem receives from previously learned problems, was shown as a substantial determinant of the performance across multiplication problems. This proactive interference was found both in children and adults and showed that when a problem is highly similar to previously learned ones, it is more difficult to remember it. Furthermore, the sensitivity to this similarity interference determined individual differences in the learning and retrieving of arithmetic facts, giving new insights for interindividual differences. Regarding the atypical development, hypersensitivity-to-interference in memory was related to arithmetic facts deficit in a single case of developmental dyscalculia and in a group of fourth-grade children with low arithmetic facts knowledge. In sum, the impact of similarity interference is shown in the learning stage of arithmetic facts and concerns the typical and atypical development.