Grabner Roland H, Brunner Clemens, Lorenz Valerie, Vogel Stephan E, De Smedt Bert
Institute of Psychology.
Parenting and Special Education Research Unit.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2022 Feb;48(2):199-212. doi: 10.1037/xlm0000982. Epub 2021 Feb 4.
There is broad consensus on the assumption that adults solve single-digit multiplication problems almost exclusively by fact retrieval from memory. In contrast, there has been a long-standing debate on the cognitive processes involved in solving single-digit addition problems. This debate has evolved around two theoretical accounts. Proponents of a fact-retrieval account postulate that these are also solved through fact retrieval, whereas proponents of a compacted-counting account propose that solving very small additions (with operands between 1 and 4) involves highly automatized and unconscious compacted counting. In the present electroencephalography (EEG) study, we put these two accounts to the test by comparing neurophysiological correlates of solving very small additions and multiplications. Forty adults worked on an arithmetic production task involving all (nontie) single-digit additions and multiplications. Afterward, participants completed trial-by-trial strategy self-reports. In our EEG analyses, we focused on induced activity (event-related synchronization/desynchronization, ERS/ERD) in three frequency bands (theta, lower alpha, upper alpha). Across all frequency bands, we found higher evidential strength for similar rather than different neurophysiological processes accompanying the solution of very small addition and multiplication problems. In the alpha bands, evidence for similarity was even stronger when operand-1-problems were excluded. In two additional analyses, we showed that ERS/ERD can differentiate between self-reported problem-solving strategies (retrieval vs. procedure) and between very small × 1 and + 1 problems, demonstrating its high sensitivity to cognitive processes in arithmetic. The present findings support a fact-retrieval account, suggesting that both very small additions and multiplications are solved through fact retrieval. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
人们普遍认为，成年人几乎完全通过从记忆中检索事实来解决一位数乘法问题。相比之下，对于解决一位数加法问题所涉及的认知过程，长期以来一直存在争论。这场争论围绕两种理论展开。事实检索理论的支持者假设，这些问题也通过事实检索来解决，而紧凑计数理论的支持者则提出，解决非常小的加法问题（操作数在1到4之间）涉及高度自动化和无意识的紧凑计数。在目前的脑电图（EEG）研究中，我们通过比较解决非常小的加法和乘法问题的神经生理相关性来检验这两种理论。40名成年人参与了一项算术生成任务，其中包括所有（非平局）一位数加法和乘法。之后，参与者完成了逐次试验的策略自我报告。在我们的脑电图分析中，我们关注了三个频段（theta、低阿尔法、高阿尔法）的诱发活动（事件相关同步/去同步，ERS/ERD）。在所有频段中，我们发现，在解决非常小的加法和乘法问题时，伴随的神经生理过程相似而非不同的证据强度更高。在阿尔法频段，排除操作数为1的问题时，相似性的证据更强。在另外两项分析中，我们表明，ERS/ERD可以区分自我报告的问题解决策略（检索与程序）以及非常小的×1和+1问题，证明了其对算术认知过程的高敏感性。目前的研究结果支持事实检索理论，表明非常小的加法和乘法都是通过事实检索来解决的。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2022美国心理学会，保留所有权利）
