Different brain mechanisms mediate two strategies in arithmetic: evidence from Event-Related brain Potentials

Participants were asked to verify if complex additions were smaller than 100 or not. Two hundred and forty arithmetic problems were presented, with half the problems being small-split problems (i.e. proposed sums were 2 or 5% away from 100) and half being large-split problems (i.e. proposed sums wer...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuropsychologia 2003, Vol.41 (7), p.855-862
Main Authors: El Yagoubi, Radouane, Lemaire, Patrick, Besson, Mireille
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Brain Mapping
Cerebral Cortex - physiology
Cognition - physiology
Cognitive science
Electroencephalography
ERP
Evoked Potentials - physiology
Female
Humans
Inequalities verification
Male
Mathematics
Mental Processes - physiology
Problem Solving - physiology
Psychology
Reaction Time
Reference Values
Split effects
Strategy execution
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Summary:Participants were asked to verify if complex additions were smaller than 100 or not. Two hundred and forty arithmetic problems were presented, with half the problems being small-split problems (i.e. proposed sums were 2 or 5% away from 100) and half being large-split problems (i.e. proposed sums were 10 or 15% away from 100). Behavioral and ERPs data indicate that participants may use two different strategies to verify complex inequalities, a whole-calculation strategy for small-split problems and an approximate-calculation strategy for large-split problems. The choice between these two strategies occured within 250 ms post-stimulus presentation, and strategy execution was lateralized. Implications for our understanding of the brain mechanisms underlying arithmetic problem solving are discussed.
ISSN:0028-3932
1873-3514
DOI:10.1016/S0028-3932(02)00180-X