In this research, 10- to 12- and 13- to 15-year-old children were presented with very simple addition and multiplication problems involving operands from 1 to 4. Critically, the arithmetic sign was presented before the operands in half of the trials, whereas it was presented at the same time as the operands in the other half. Our results indicate that presenting the ‘x’ sign before the operands of a multiplication problem does not speed up the solving process, irrespective of the age of children. In contrast, presenting the ‘+’ sign before the operands of an addition problem facilitates the solving process, but only in 13 to 15-year-old children. Such priming effects of the arithmetic sign have been previously interpreted as the result of a pre-activation of an automated counting procedure, which can be applied as soon as the operands are presented. Therefore, our results echo previous conclusions of the literature that simple additions but not multiplications can be solved by fast counting procedures. More importantly, we show here that these procedures are possibly convoked automatically by children after the age of 13 years. At a more theoretical level, our results do not support the theory that simple additions are solved through retrieval of the answers from long-term memory by experts. Rather, the development of expertise for mental addition would consist in an acceleration of procedures until automatization.

中文翻译：

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算术标志对 10 至 15 岁儿童的启动效应

在这项研究中，向 10 至 12 岁和 13 至 15 岁的儿童提出了非常简单的加法和乘法问题，涉及操作数从 1 到 4。重要的是，在一半的试验中，算术符号出现在操作数之前，而它与另一半的操作数同时出现。我们的结果表明，无论孩子的年龄如何，在乘法问题的操作数之前显示“x”符号都不会加快求解过程。相比之下，在加法问题的操作数之前显示“+”号有助于解决过程，但仅适用于 13 至 15 岁的儿童。之前已经将算术符号的这种启动效应解释为自动计数程序预激活的结果，它可以在操作数出现后立即应用。因此，我们的结果与文献先前的结论相呼应，即通过快速计数程序可以解决简单的加法而不是乘法。更重要的是，我们在这里表明，这些程序可能是 13 岁以后的儿童自动调用的。在更理论的层面上，我们的结果不支持通过专家从长期记忆中检索答案来解决简单加法的理论。相反，智力加法专业知识的发展将包括加速程序直至自动化。我们在这里表明，这些程序可能由 13 岁以后的儿童自动调用。在更理论的层面上，我们的结果不支持通过专家从长期记忆中检索答案来解决简单加法的理论。相反，智力加法专业知识的发展将包括加速程序直至自动化。我们在这里表明，这些程序可能由 13 岁以后的儿童自动调用。在更理论的层面上，我们的结果不支持通过专家从长期记忆中检索答案来解决简单加法的理论。相反，智力加法专业知识的发展将包括加速程序直到自动化。