Activation of the intermediate sum in intentional and automatic calculations.

ABSTRACT: Most research investigating how the cognitive system deals with arithmetic has focused on the processing of two addends. Arithmetic that involves more addends has specific cognitive demands such as the need to compute and hold the intermediate sum. This study examines the intermediate sums activations in intentional and automatic calculations. Experiment 1 included addition problems containing three operands. Participants were asked to calculate the sum and to remember the digits that appeared in the problem. The results revealed an interference effect in which it was hard to identify that the digit representing the intermediate sum was not actually one of the operands. Experiment 2, further examined if the intermediate sum is activated automatically when a task does not require calculatio

SUBMITTER: Abramovich Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4591477 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature