title: Comparing arithmetic and semantic fact retrieval: effects of problem size and sentence constraint on event-related brain potentials.
abstract: Event-related potentials were recorded with 61 electrodes from 16 students who verified either the correctness of single-digit multiplication problems or the semantic congruency of sentences. Multiplication problems varied in size and sentence fragments in constraint. Both semantic and arithmetic incongruencies evoked a typical N400 with a clear parieto-central maximum. In addition, numerically larger problems (8x7), in comparison to smaller problems (3x2), evoked a negativity starting at about 360 ms whose maximum was located over the right temporal-parietal scalp. These results indicate that the arithmetic incongruency and the problem-size effect are functionally distinct. It is suggested that the arithmetic and the semantic incongruency effects are both functionally related to a context-dependent spread of activation in specialized associative networks, whereas the arithmetic problem-size effect is due to rechecking routines that go beyond basic fact retrieval.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Biological Psychology, Philipps-University Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Kerstin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jost
authors.forename: Erwin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hennighausen
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rösler
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation / Q000502:physiology; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008433:Mathematics; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012660:Semantics; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology*