Das Runa, LeFevre Jo-Anne, Penner-Wilger Marcie
Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2010 Oct;63(10):1943-52. doi: 10.1080/17470210903564359. Epub 2010 Feb 11.
Are negative numbers processed differently from positive numbers in arithmetic problems? In two experiments, adults (N = 66) solved standard addition and subtraction problems such as 3 + 4 and 7 - 4 and recasted versions that included explicit negative signs-that is, 3 - (-4), 7 + (-4), and (-4) + 7. Solution times on the recasted problems were slower than those on standard problems, but the effect was much larger for addition than subtraction. The negative sign may prime subtraction in both kinds of recasted problem. Problem size effects were the same or smaller in recasted than in standard problems, suggesting that the recasted formats did not interfere with mental calculation. These results suggest that the underlying conceptual structure of the problem (i.e., addition vs. subtraction) is more important for solution processes than the presence of negative numbers.
在算术问题中，负数的处理方式与正数不同吗？在两项实验中，成年人（N = 66）解答标准的加减法问题，如3 + 4和7 - 4，以及包含明确负号的改写版本——即3 - (-4)、7 + (-4)和(-4) + 7。改写问题的解答时间比标准问题慢，但加法问题的这种影响比减法问题大得多。负号可能在两种改写问题中都引发了减法运算。改写问题中的问题规模效应与标准问题相同或更小，这表明改写后的形式并未干扰心算。这些结果表明，问题的潜在概念结构（即加法与减法）对解答过程比负数的存在更为重要。
