Number order in addition affects cognitive effort: evidence from mental arithmetic tasks
- Omid Khatin-Zadeh,
- ,
- Zahra Eskandari,
- Arash Ghahraman,
- Jiayong He,
- Hassan Banaruee
- University of Electronic Science and Technology of China,
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology,
- Eötvös Loránd University,
- Tongji University,
- Weingarten University of Education
Open access
Publication Information
Output type
Original language
EnglishArticle number
1618197Journal (Volume, Issue Number)
Frontiers in Psychology (Volume 16)Publication milestones
- Published - 01/01/2025
Publication status
External Publication IDs
- Scopus: 105014207662
Abstract
In this study, our aim was to find out how order of numbers in the arithmetic operation of addition affects cognitive effort of mental processing. We presented two sets of addition questions (a + b) to a group of participants. In one set of questions, the first number of each item was larger than the second number (a > b). In another set of questions, the first number was smaller than the second number (a < b). The participants were asked to answer each item within a period of 12 seconds. The results showed that when the first number was larger than the second number, participants provided more correct answers and were faster in giving correct answers. Two explanations are discussed for these results. Finally, it is concluded that the property of commutativity of addition does not mean that performing that operation in various situations involves the same level of cognitive effort.