title: Different brain mechanisms mediate two strategies in arithmetic: evidence from Event-Related brain Potentials.
abstract: Participants were asked to verify if complex additions were smaller than 100 or not. Two hundred and forty arithmetic problems were presented, with half the problems being small-split problems (i.e. proposed sums were 2 or 5% away from 100) and half being large-split problems (i.e. proposed sums were 10 or 15% away from 100). Behavioral and ERPs data indicate that participants may use two different strategies to verify complex inequalities, a whole-calculation strategy for small-split problems and an approximate-calculation strategy for large-split problems. The choice between these two strategies occurred within 250 ms post-stimulus presentation, and strategy execution was lateralized. Implications for our understanding of the brain mechanisms underlying arithmetic problem solving are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Université de Provence & CNRS, case 66, 3 Place Victor Hugo, 13331 Marseille Cedex 3, France. radouane@up.univ-mrs.fr
authors.forename: Radouane
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: El Yagoubi
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lemaire
authors.forename: Mireille
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Besson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology*; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D012016:Reference Values