Effects of response time deadlines on adults' strategy choices for simple addition

Abstract

In this investigation of adults' solution strategies for simple arithmetic, participants solved addition problems (e.g., 2 + 3, 8 + 7) under fast and slow response deadlines: The participants were instructed either to respond before a 750-msec warning beep, or to wait for a 2,500-msec beep before responding. After each trial, they indicated whether they had solved the problem by direct memory retrieval or by using a procedural strategy (e.g., counting, transformation). It was predicted that the fast deadline condition should curtail the use of procedural strategies, which generally are slower than direct retrieval. Furthermore, this deadline effect should be exaggerated for numerically larger problems because procedural strategies are especially slow for the larger problems. As predicted, we observed a deadline x size interaction whereby the fast deadline increased reported use of retrieval, especially for large problems. The results confirm that reported use of direct retrieval decreases systematically with elapsed time, and they provide additional evidence that young, educated adults rely substantially on procedural strategies even for simple addition.