Cortex
Volume 45, Issue 10 , Pages 1167-1177 , November 2009

Event-related brain potentials uncover activation dynamics in the lexicon of multiplication facts

  • Giovanni Galfano

      Affiliations

    • Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padua, Italy
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Università di Padova, Via Venezia, 8, I-35131 Padova, Italy.
    • ,
  • Barbara Penolazzi

      Affiliations

    • Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Italy
    • ,
  • Ineke Vervaeck

      Affiliations

    • Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Gent, Belgium
    • ,
  • Alessandro Angrilli

      Affiliations

    • Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Italy
    • ,
  • Carlo Umiltà

      Affiliations

    • Department of General Psychology, University of Padua, Italy

Received 3 June 2008 ,Revised 10 September 2008 ,Accepted 19 September 2008.

References 

  1. Ashcraft MH. Children's knowledge of simple arithmetic: a developmental model and simulation. In:  Brainerd CJ,  Kail R,  Bisanz J editor. Formal Methods in Developmental Psychology: Progress in Cognitive Development Research. New York: Springer-Verlag; 1987;p. 302–338
  2. Ashcraft MH, Battaglia J. Cognitive arithmetic: evidence for retrieval and decision processes in mental addition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory. 1978;4:527–538
  3. Barber HA, Kutas M. Interplay between computational models and cognitive electrophysiology in visual word recognition. Brain Research Reviews. 2007;53:98–123
  4. Campbell JID. Mechanisms of simple addition and multiplication: a modified network interference theory and simulation. Mathematical Cognition. 1995;1:121–164
  5. Campbell JID, Robert ND. Bidirectional associations in multiplication memory: conditions of negative and positive transfer. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 2008;34:546–555
  6. Collins AM, Loftus EF. A spreading activation theory of semantic processing. Psychological Review. 1975;82:407–428
  7. Dehaene S, Akhavein R. Attention, automaticity, and levels of representation in number processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 1995;21:314–326
  8. Dehaene S, Molko N, Cohen L, Wilson AJ. Arithmetic and the brain. Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 2004;14:218–224
  9. Delazer M, Karner E, Zamarian L, Donnemiller E, Benke T. Number processing in posterior cortical atrophy – a neuropsychological case study. Neuropsychologia. 2006;44:36–51
  10. El Yagoubi R, Lemaire P, Besson M. Different brain mechanisms mediate two strategies in arithmetic: evidence from event-related brain potentials. Neuropsychologia. 2003;41:855–862
  11. Galfano G, Rusconi E, Umiltà C. Automatic activation of multiplication facts: evidence from the nodes adjacent to the product. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 2003;56A:31–61
  12. Galfano G, Mazza V, Angrilli A, Umiltà C. Electrophysiological correlates of stimulus-driven multiplication facts retrieval. Neuropsychologia. 2004;42:1370–1382
  13. Hecht SA. Individual solution processes while solving addition and multiplication math facts in adults. Memory and Cognition. 1999;27:1097–1107
  14. Huynh H, Feldt LS. Conditions under which mean square ratios in repeated measurements designs have exact F-distribution. Journal of the American Statistical Association. 1970;65:1582–1589
  15. Jost K, Henninghausen E, Rösler F. Comparing arithmetic and semantic fact retrieval: effects of problem size and sentence constraint on event-related brain potentials. Psychophysiology. 2004;41:46–59
  16. Jost K, Beinhoff U, Henninghausen E, Rösler F. Facts, rules, and strategies in single-digit multiplication: evidence from event-related brain potentials. Cognitive Brain Research. 2004;20:183–193
  17. Kiefer M, Brendel D. Attentional modulation of unconscious “automatic” processes: evidence from event-related potentials in a masked priming paradigm. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 2006;18:184–198
  18. Kreher DA, Holcomb PJ, Kuperberg GR. An electrophysiological investigation of indirect semantic priming. Psychophysiology. 2006;43:550–563
  19. Krueger LE. Why 2×2=5 looks so wrong: on the odd-even rule in product verification. Memory and Cognition. 1986;14:141–149
  20. Kutas M, Hillyard SA. Reading senseless sentences: brain potentials reflect semantic incongruity. Science. 1980;207:203–205
  21. Lemaire P, Reder L. What affects strategy selection in mental arithmetic? An example of parity and five effects on product verification. Memory and Cognition. 1999;27:364–382
  22. LeFevre J-A, Kulak AG. Individual differences in the obligatory activation of addition facts. Memory and Cognition. 1994;22:188–200
  23. LeFevre J-A, Bisanz J, Mrkonjic L. Cognitive arithmetic: evidence for obligatory activation of arithmetic facts. Memory and Cognition. 1988;16:45–53
  24. LeFevre J-A, Kulak AG, Bisanz J. Individual differences and developmental change in the associative relations among numbers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 1994;52:256–274
  25. LeFevre J-A, Bisanz J, Daley KE, Buffone L, Greenham SL, Sadesky GS. Multiple routes to solution of single-digit multiplication problems. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 1996;125:216–230
  26. Martín-Loeches M, Casado P, Gonzalo R, De Heras L, Fernández-Frías C. Brain-potentials to mathematical syntax problems. Psychophysiology. 2006;43:579–591
  27. McCloskey M. Cognitive mechanisms in numerical processing: evidence from acquired dyscalculia. Cognition. 1992;44:107–157
  28. McCloskey M, Aliminosa D, Sokol S. Facts, rules, ad procedures in normal calculation: evidence from multiple single-patient studies of impaired arithmetic fact retrieval. Brain and Cognition. 1991;17:154–203
  29. Niedeggen M, Rösler F. N400 effects reflect activation spread during retrieval of arithmetic facts. Psychological Science. 1999;10:271–276
  30. Niedeggen M, Rösler F, Jost K. Processing of incongruous mental calculation problems: evidence for an arithmetic N400 effect. Psychophysiology. 1999;36:307–324
  31. Núñez-Peña MI, Escera C. An event-related brain potential study of the arithmetic split effect. International Journal of Psychophysiology. 2007;64:164–173
  32. Núñez-Peña MI, Cortiñas M, Escera C. Problem size effect and processing strategies in mental arithmetic. NeuroReport. 2006;17:357–360
  33. Oostenveld R, Praamstra P. The five percent electrode system for high-resolution EEG and ERP measurements. Clinical Neurophysiology. 2001;112:713–719
  34. Penolazzi B, Hauk O, Pulvermüller F. Early semantic context integration and lexical access as revealed by event-related brain potentials. Biological Psychology. 2007;74:374–388
  35. Rickard TC. A revised identical elements model of arithmetic facts representation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 2005;31:250–257
  36. Rolke B, Heil M, Streb J, Henninghausen E. Missed prime words within the attentional blink evoke an N400 semantic priming effect. Psychophysiology. 2001;38:165–174
  37. Rusconi E, Galfano G, Speriani V, Umiltà C. Capacity and contextual constraints on product activation: evidence form task-irrelevant fact retrieval. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 2004;57A:1485–1511
  38. Rusconi E, Galfano G, Rebonato E, Umiltà C. Bidirectional links in the network of multiplication facts. Psychological Research. 2006;70:32–42
  39. Rusconi E, Priftis K, Rusconi ML, Umiltà C. Arithmetic priming from neglected numbers. Cognitive Neuropsychology. 2006;23:227–239
  40. Spironelli C, Angrilli A. Influence of phonological, semantic and orthographic tasks on the early linguistic components N150 and N350. International Journal of Psychophysiology. 2007;64:190–198
  41. Sternberg S. Memory-scanning: mental processes revealed by reaction-time experiments. American Scientist. 1969;57:421–457
  42. Szücs D, Csépe V. The effect of numerical distance and stimulus probability on ERP components elicited by numerical incongruencies in mental addition. Cognitive Brain Research. 2005;22:289–300
  43. Thibodeau MH, LeFevre J-A, Bisanz J. The extension of the interference effect to multiplication. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology. 1996;50:393–396
  44. Verguts T, Fias W. Interacting neighbors: a connectionist model of retrieval in single-digit multiplication. Memory and Cognition. 2005;33:1–16
  45. Wang Y, Kong J, Tang X, Zhuang D, Li S. Event-related potential N270 is elicited by mental conflict processing in human brain. Neuroscience Letters. 2000;293:17–20
  46. Weisbrod M, Kiefer M, Winkler S, Maier S, Hill H, Roesch-Ely D, et al. Electrophysiological correlates of direct versus indirect semantic priming in normal volunteers. Cognitive Brain Research. 1999;8:289–298
  47. Zamarian L, Karner E, Benke T, Donnemiller E, Delazer M. Knowing 7×8, but not the meaning of “elephant”: evidence for the dissociation between numerical and non-numerical semantic knowledge. Neuropsychologia. 2006;44:1708–1723
  48. Zamarian L, Stadelmann E, Nürk H-C, Gamboz N, Marksteiner J, Delazer M. Effects of age and mild cognitive impairment on direct and indirect access to arithmetic knowledge. Neuropsychologia. 2007;45:1511–1521
  49. Zhou X, Chen C, Zhang H, Chen C, Zhou R, Dong Q. The operand-order effect in single-digit multiplication. Neuroscience Letters. 2007;414:41–44

PII: S0010-9452(08)00228-1

doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2008.09.003

Cortex
Volume 45, Issue 10 , Pages 1167-1177 , November 2009

Article Tools

* Image Usage & Resolution