Abstract

DAMAS LOPEZ, Jesús. Which code does underlie multiplication?: Evidences from a magnitude decision task with masked priming. Escritos de Psicología [online]. 2009, vol.2, n.3, pp.27-34. ISSN 1989-3809.

Recent studies have shown that the prior masked presentation of a multiplication facilitates the naming of its solution. The different models of arithmetical processing that coexist today offer various explanations for this phenomenon, and it is not clear what is the locus (semantic or verbal) of this facilitation effect. In the present study we try to determine the nature of the effect by keeping the same exposition sequence, but changing the naming verbal task to a magnitude decision task ("is the number displayed more or less than 18?"). We presented a series of target numbers preceded by a masked multiplication matching or non-matching the target number on which the magnitude judgement should be done. The time to judge the magnitude of the matching targets was similar to that taken to judge the non-matching ones. Thus, the presentation of a masked multiplication does not appear to activate its solution at the semantic level, suggesting that the locus of the priming effects found in naming tasks has its origin in the verbal representations of the multiplication.

Keywords : Masked priming; single-digit multiplications; magnitude decision task.

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