title: Simple mental arithmetic is not so simple: an ERP study of the split and odd-even effects in mental arithmetic.
abstract: This study aimed to investigate the effects of split size (small vs. large splits) and odd-even congruency (parity congruency vs. parity incongruency) of answers on arithmetical equation processing. Event-related potentials were recorded from 18 students in a first-answer-then-equation presentation mode. The ERP results showed that the odd-even congruency had a significant effect on the late positive wave in the small, but not the large split, with a late positive slow wave elicited by the small-split and the odd-even congruent conditions. This result suggests that the split effect has priority over parity congruency when both split and parity are at play simultaneously. Specifically, in non-retrieval arithmetic verification tasks, parity is modulated in cases where a direct judgment cannot be reached simply by depending on the split information.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and School of Educational Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China.
authors.forename: Yalin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Chang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Xiaodong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Xiaojiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Wangbing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shen