Rusconi Elena, Galfano Giovanni, Speriani Viviana, Umiltà Carlo
Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Via Venezia 8, 35131 Padua, Italy.
Q J Exp Psychol A. 2004 Nov;57(8):1485-511. doi: 10.1080/02724980343000873.
Three experiments tested the limiting conditions of multiplication facts retrieval in a number-matching task (LeFevre, Bisanz, & Mrkonjic, 1988). By presenting two digits as cue and by requiring participants to decide whether a subsequent numerical target had been present in the pair, we found interference when the target coincided with the product of the cue digits. This was evidence for obligatory activation of multiplication facts. Also, we showed that multiplication facts retrieval occurred even in the absence of any arithmetic context (i.e., a multiplication sign between the cue digits) and did not require processing resources (i.e., the process met the capacity criterion of automaticity; Jonides, 1981), whereas manipulation of the spatial relation between the two operands (cue digits) negatively affected retrieval. The present work appears to be unique in the context of previous similar studies on mental calculation, which invariably adopted an arithmetic task as the primary demand. We identify this difference as the reason for the failure of all previous studies in revealing independence of multiplication facts from attentional resources. Furthermore, we suggest the application of a contextual definition of automaticity to this kind of retrieval, given the fact that it might depend both on association strength and on contextual setting variables.
三项实验在数字匹配任务中测试了乘法口诀检索的限制条件（勒菲弗、比萨兹和姆尔科尼奇，1988年）。通过呈现两个数字作为线索，并要求参与者判断随后的数字目标是否出现在该数字对中，我们发现当目标与线索数字的乘积一致时会产生干扰。这证明了乘法口诀会被强制激活。此外，我们还表明，即使在没有任何算术语境（即线索数字之间没有乘法符号）的情况下，乘法口诀检索也会发生，并且不需要处理资源（即该过程符合自动性的容量标准；乔尼德斯，1981年），而两个操作数（线索数字）之间空间关系的操作会对检索产生负面影响。在以往类似的心算研究中，总是将算术任务作为主要要求，而目前这项研究似乎在这一背景下独具特色。我们认为这种差异是以往所有研究未能揭示乘法口诀与注意力资源独立性的原因。此外，鉴于这种检索可能既取决于联想强度又取决于语境设置变量，我们建议将自动性的语境定义应用于此类检索。
