Spatial biases in arithmetic problem solving: interference and/or facilitation?
(2022) MCLS — Location: Antwerpen (1.June.2022)
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- Abstract
- Studies in mental arithmetic have revealed spatial-numerical associations, wherein subtraction appears related to the left and addition to the right side of space, demonstrating that spatial and arithmetical processes are somehow related. Some studies investigated the effect of processing space on solving arithmetical problems while others investigated the reverse effect; some studies showed a facilitating effect of one process over the other, while others showed an interfering effect[1,2,3]. However, how and when this reciprocal influence takes place and produces facilitation and/or interference is still unclear. Here, we used a dual-task paradigm in which participants had to solve subtraction/addition problems and report the location of lateralised (left vs. right) targets, while the synchrony of the two tasks varied (targets presented before the problem, along with the operator, along with the second operand, vs. during calculation). Results show an interference of the arithmetical task on the spatial task: when erroneous, the reported position fits the spatial association of the operation (i.e., saying “left/right” after a subtraction/addition when targets had appeared on the right/left); this interference is absent when targets appear before the problem is presented. Results also show a possible mixture of slight facilitating and interfering effects of the spatial task on the response latencies of the arithmetical task: for addition, participants tend to respond faster when targets had appeared on the right than on the left, except when they were presented during the calculation step, in which case latencies increase. Findings are discussed in light of recent proposals on arithmetical solving.
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Pesenti, M., & Masson, N. (2022). Spatial biases in arithmetic problem solving: interference and/or facilitation? MCLS, Antwerpen. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/106675