The Effect Of Numerical Surface Form And Operational Form On Strategy Use Of Arithmetic Calculation:Behavioral And ERP Evidences

Strategy usually refers to a a series of programs that perform a higher level of goal or task(Lemaire&o Reder,1999).Using a variety of strategies to complete cognitive processing tasks is a significant feature of human cognitive activities.With the in-depth research,more and more researchers begin to pay attention to arithmetic strategy use.And previous studies have found that problem characteristics,strategies applicability,arithmetic skills,cultural differences,working memory,existing knowledg,language and other factors will affect arithmetic strategy use in different various degree.Along with the increase research of mathematical cognition,more and more attention are paid to numerical surface form and operational form.Previous studies have been investigated the age differences of how operational form influence arithmetic strategy use,but the related adult study and the research on how operational form affect steategy execution is rather rare.Furthermore,the influence of numerical surface form on strategy selection is still controversial,and the study of relevant physiological and psychological mechanism has not yet been published.In view of this,in-depth study of the influence of numerical surface form and operational form on arithmetic strategy use will help us to expand the research field of arithmetic strategy use,deepen the understanding of the affecting factor of arithmetic strategy use,and provide some enlightenment for the practical teaching of mathematics education.In the present study,addition/subtraction problems within 20 were presented in three number forms(English numeral words,Chinese numeral words and Arabic numerals)to investigate the influence of numerical surface form and operation form on arithmetic calculation strategy use with the help of strategy selection condition and strategy execution condition.The present study included both a behavioral experiment and an ERPs experiment.In Experiment 1,100 college students were selected as participants,both the arithmetic skills test and self-designed arithmetic problems were adopted to systematically investigate the behavioral effect of surface form and operational form on strategy use of arithmetic calculation through strategy seletion condition and strategy execution condition.In Experiment 2,we selected 33 college students to to finish the addition and subtraction problems with decomposition strategy,which aimed at carefully exploring the neural mechanisms of how surface form and operational form influence arithmetic calculation strategy use.Major results were as follows:(1)Numerical surface form could significantly restrict the use of arithmetic calculation strategy.In strategy selection condition,individuals were more inclined to use retrieval strategy for Arabic numerals,and had shorter reaction time.While for the problems presented in Chinese and English numeral words format,individuals used more decomposition strategy,and had longer reaction time.In strategy execution condition,problems presented in Chinese and English numeral words format had more reaction time and higher correct rate than Arabic numerals.(2)The operational form could obviously affect the use of arithmetic calculation strategy.In strategy selection condition,compared with longer reaction time in subtraction problems,individuals took less time when solving addition problems.In strategy execution condition,compared with subtraction problems,the reaction time of additon problems was shorter when individuals executed decomposition strategy.(3)There is a significant interaction between operation form and numerical surface form.In this three surface forms,the reaction time of subtraction problems was significantly longer than addition problems.In the two operation forms,the reaction time of English numeral words fomat was the longest,followed by the Chinese numeral words format,and Arabic numerals format was the shortest.(4)ERPs data showed that numerical surface form affected the activation time and activation intensity of different brain components in strategy execution.Compared with Chinese numeral words and Arabic numerals,English numeral words elicited a larger N100,but there was no significant differences among their latency.Whatsmore,English numeral words induced larger P220 and had longer latency.Moreover,English numeral words aroused the largest P300,followed by Chinese numeral words and Arabia numerals,the three peaks had significant differences,and English and Chinese numeral words had longer latency than Arabia numerals.(5)ERPs data showed that operational form had a significant effect on the latency of brain components during the process of strategy execution.Addition had longer N100 latency than subtraction.For P300,subtraction had longer latency than addition.However,addition and subtraction had no significant differences in peak and latency of P220.The main conclusions were as follows:(1)The performance of individual arithmetic computation strategy use is easy to be restricted by numerical surface form and operation form.Chinese and English numeral words forms can significantly restrict the speed and accuracy of individual's calculation.Compared with addition,the impact of subtraction on strategy execution is more obvious,which result in more attention time.(2)In the process of strategy use,numbers with different surface types have different processing depth,which will result in distrinct activation intensity of brain regions.The surface form of English numeral words can occupy more mental resources,reduce the efficiency of strategy use,and have a significant negative influence on the processing of arithmetic information.(3)The operational form can impact the activation degree of the brain.Compared with addition,subtraction have a relatively slower speed of information processing,and have larger negative impact on the processing of arithmetic information.