Heuristics and biases in mental arithmetic
- Mental arithmetic is characterised by a tendency to overestimate addition and to underestimate subtraction results: the operational momentum (OM) effect. Here, motivated by contentious explanations of this effect, we developed and tested an arithmetic heuristics and biases model that predicts reverse OM due to cognitive anchoring effects. Participants produced bi-directional lines with lengths corresponding to the results of arithmetic problems. In two experiments, we found regular OM with zero problems (e.g., 3+0, 3-0) but reverse OM with non-zero problems (e.g., 2+1, 4-1). In a third experiment, we tested the prediction of our model. Our results suggest the presence of at least three competing biases in mental arithmetic: a more-or-less heuristic, a sign-space association and an anchoring bias. We conclude that mental arithmetic exhibits shortcuts for decision-making similar to traditional domains of reasoning and problem-solving.
Author details: | Samuel ShakiORCiD, Michal Pinhas, Martin H. FischerORCiDGND |
---|---|
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2017.1348987 |
ISSN: | 1354-6783 |
ISSN: | 1464-0708 |
Title of parent work (English): | Thinking & Reasoning |
Subtitle (English): | revisiting and reversing operational momentum |
Publisher: | Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group |
Place of publishing: | Abingdon |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Date of first publication: | 2017/07/11 |
Publication year: | 2017 |
Release date: | 2022/03/14 |
Tag: | Heuristics; mental arithmetic; mental number line; operational momentum; problem-solving |
Volume: | 24 |
Issue: | 2 |
Number of pages: | 19 |
First page: | 138 |
Last Page: | 156 |
Organizational units: | Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Mathematik |
DDC classification: | 5 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik / 51 Mathematik / 510 Mathematik |