Selective Interference of Finger Movements on Basic Addition and Subtraction Problem Solving

Abstract

Fingers offer a practical tool to represent and manipulate numbers during the acquisition of arithmetic knowledge, usually with a greater involvement in addition and subtraction than in multiplication. In adults, brain-imaging studies show that mental arithmetic increases activity in areas known for their contribution to finger movements. It is unclear, however, if this truly reflects functional interactions between the processes and/or representations controlling finger movements and those involved in mental arithmetic, or a mere anatomical proximity. In this study we assessed whether finger movements interfere with basic arithmetic problem solving, and whether this interference is specific for the operations that benefit the most from finger-based calculation strategies in childhood. In Experiment 1, we asked participants to solve addition, subtraction, and multiplication problems either with their hands at rest or while moving their right-hand fingers sequentially. The results showed that finger movements induced a selective time cost in solving addition and subtraction but not multiplication problems. In Experiment 2, we asked participants to solve the same problems while performing a sequence of foot movements. The results showed that foot movements produced a nonspecific interference with all three operations. Taken together, these findings demonstrate the specific role of finger-related processes in solving addition and subtraction problems, suggesting that finger movements and mental arithmetic are functionally related.

Anatomically ordered tapping interferes more with one-digit addition than two-digit addition: a dual-task fMRI study

“…The current study extends the findings reported by Michaux et al (2013), by pursuing three previously unexplored questions in regard to the finger tapping and arithmetic interaction using an fMRI experiment. First, is finger interference modulated by the difficulty of the arithmetic task?…”

“…The link between finger movement and number may be weakened when the fingers are not moved in a simple anatomical order, making the interference effect larger for simple sequence tapping than the complex sequence tapping. The previously reported selective interference of simple sequence tapping on one-digit addition and subtraction, but not on multiplication (Michaux et al 2013), supports the idea that arithmetic operations that rely Fig. 8 a Tapping vs. notapping comparison, with a single cluster in the left precentral area, and b notapping vs. tapping comparison Fig.…”

“…Based on a previous study (Michaux et al 2013) showing that finger tapping selectively interfered with addition and subtraction, but not with multiplication and that the effect was specific to finger tapping, we explored how the tapping and addition difficulty modulated the dual-task interference, and explored the neural aspects of the interference. The RT results show that the tapping modulates the interference across all conditions.…”

“…For example, in a recent dual-task study, Michaux et al (2013) found that anatomically ordered finger tapping interfered with addition and subtraction more than multiplication. They proposed that the finger counting-based calculation strategies used in childhood for simple addition and subtraction, but not for multiplication, can explain the selective interference based on an early grounding of addition and subtraction processes in finger representations, which still has influence on arithmetic processing in adulthood.…”

Cognition numérique : que peuvent nous apprendre les personnes non-voyantes ?

“…Au niveau comportemental, un individu identifiera les nombres arabes allant de 1 à 10 plus rapidement et de manière plus précise lorsque le doigt utilisé pour presser le bouton réponse correspond à l'association doigt-nombre qu'il utilise de manière prototypique [10]. De plus, le comptage oral et l'arithmétique peuvent être perturbés par la réalisa-tion de mouvements passifs (mouvements des mains du sujet réalisés par l'expérimentateur et non conformes aux procédures de comptage sur les doigts) [11] et actifs [12] des mains. Au niveau neuronal, des études en IRMf (imagerie par résonance magnétique fonctionnelle) ont prouvé que les mouvements digitaux et le traitement numérique activaient une même région cérébrale : le gyrus angulaire 2 [13].…”