title: Strategy sequential difficulty effects vary with working-memory and response-stimulus-intervals: a study in arithmetic.
abstract: Strategy sequential difficulty effects are the findings that when participants execute strategies, performance is worse after a difficult strategy than after an easy strategy (Uittenhove & Lemaire, 2012). Strategy sequential difficulty effects are hypothesized to result from decreased working-memory resources following difficult strategy execution. In the present study we found a correlation between individuals' working memory and strategy sequential difficulty effects in arithmetic, supporting a working-memory account of these effects. Furthermore, we varied response-stimulus intervals, and we found decreased strategy sequential difficulty effects with increasing response-stimulus intervals. Implications of these findings for further understanding of strategic variations in human cognition are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Uittenhove
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lemaire
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D011340:Problem Solving / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult