Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T15:16:41.417Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Processing of incongruous mental calculation problems: Evidence for an arithmetic N400 effect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 September 2001

MICHAEL NIEDEGGEN
Affiliation:
Institute of Physiological Psychology II, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany
FRANK RÖSLER
Affiliation:
Experimental and Biological Psychology, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany
KERSTIN JOST
Affiliation:
Experimental and Biological Psychology, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany
Get access

Abstract

We investigated if incongruent solutions of simple multiplication problems would elicit similar event-related brain potentials as inappropriate words in sentences. In Experiment I, 12 subjects verified the appropriateness of solutions of multiplication problems or of final words in short sentences. Both incongruent solutions and incongruent words evoked a phasic negative shift between 300 and 500 ms having a similar topography. In Experiment II, we tested with another sample of 13 subjects if the amplitude of this arithmetic N400 effect was affected differently by different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA = 200 and 500 ms) and by errors that were either table-related or table-unrelated to the preceding operands. Again, incorrect solutions elicited an arithmetic N400 effect whose amplitude depended on both the relatedness of the solution and the SOA. The ascending part of the N400 effect was always larger for unrelated than for related errors independently of the SOA, whereas the maximum of the N400 effect was larger for unrelated errors in case of a long SOA only. This pattern of effects was similar to that observed with semantic material varying lexical associations. These results suggest that arithmetic incongruencies are handled by the system in a manner functionally similar to that of semantic incongruencies.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1999 Society for Psychophysiological Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)