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Number order in addition affects cognitive effort: evidence from mental arithmetic tasks
Omid Khatin-Zadeh1, Danyal Farsani2, Zahra Eskandari1
1School of Foreign Languages, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
Frontiers in Psychology
|August 29, 2025
Summary
The order of numbers in addition impacts cognitive effort. Participants solved problems faster and more accurately when the first number was larger, indicating varied mental processing demands.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Experimental Psychology
Background:
- The commutativity property of addition states that the order of operands does not change the sum (a + b = b + a).
- However, the cognitive effort required to perform addition may vary depending on the numerical order presented.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of numerical order in addition problems on cognitive effort during mental processing.
- To determine if presenting larger numbers first in an addition problem influences response accuracy and speed.
Main Methods:
- Participants were presented with two sets of addition problems (a + b).
- One set featured problems where a > b, and the other where a < b.
- Each problem had a 12-second time limit for response.
Main Results:
- Participants demonstrated higher accuracy and faster response times when the first number was larger than the second (a > b).
- This suggests that the cognitive load associated with mental addition is sensitive to numerical order.
Conclusions:
- The cognitive effort involved in performing addition is not uniform, even with the commutative property.
- Numerical order influences the efficiency of mental processing in arithmetic operations.
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