The Role of Experience in Numerical Skill: Multiplication Performance in Adults from Canada and China

Abstract

Adults educated either in the People s Republic of China or in Canada solved single-digit multiplication problems. Chinese adults were faster and made fewer errors than Canadian adults and showed smaller increases in latency and errors as problem size increased. Chinese adults transformed problems with the larger operand on the left e.g. 9 6 by reversing the digits and solving the complementary problem e.g. 6 9. Only the Canadian adults showed a substantial advantage in latencies and errors for problems with operands of 5. Although both groups showed a latency advantage on ties e.g. 3 3 as compared to other problems, the advantage was much larger for the Canadian than for the Chinese adults. These findings were only partially attributable to overall differences in skill; patterns of differences persisted when groups were equated on multi-digit arithmetic performance. Chinese adults made more errors that reflect verbal-production processes that may occur after retrieval, whereas Canadian adults made more errors that reflect retrieval processes. The results are consistent with Siegler s 1988 experiential model of multiplication.