Performance on paced serial addition tasks indicates an associative network for calculation.
Although paced serial addition (PSA) tasks are considered to be tests of general information-processing capacity, recent work suggests that performance on such tasks is influenced by arithmetic-specific variables. We designed two visual PSA experiments to determine whether the performance of normal adults would support predictions derived from the cognitive psychology of calculation. Experiment 1 showed that mixing familiar (Arabic numeral) and less familiar (Roman numeral) stimulus formats reduced scores below the averaged scores for pure Arabic and Roman lists. The Roman-Arabic order of addends was more difficult than the Arabic-Roman order. Experiment 2, which involved only Arabic numerals as addends, showed that performance could be impaired by constraining the trial-to-trial variability of sums. The results of both experiments confirm the importance of arithmetic-specific variables in PSA and provide support for an associative network model of calculation. In addition, the findings implicate interference from extraneous addends and responses as the performance-limiting factor.
Hiscock
M
M
Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-5341, USA. MHISCOCK@UH.EDU
Caroselli
J S
JS
Kimball
L E
LE
Panwar
N
N
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology