Interference in arithmetic facts: Are active suppression processes involved when performing simple mental arithmetic?

Censabella, S Noël, Marie-Pascale [UCL]

We report an experiment aimed at determining whether active suppression processes or passive activation-based interference are related to performance in the production of simple mental arithmetic. Fifty-nine undergraduate students performed simple additions and multiplications, as well as three tasks assessing suppression of distractor interference, suppression of irrelevant information from memory, and sensitivity to activation-based interference. We found a significant relationship between accuracy in the arithmetic tasks and the latter: Participants who were less accurate when solving simple arithmetic problems showed a greater sensitivity to activation-based interference than participants who were more accurate. These findings suggest that solving simple arithmetic problems involves passive activation-based interference rather than active suppression processes and are discussed in the light of theoretical models of arithmetic facts.