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J Bisanz

Publications and source records attributed to J Bisanz.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

Preschoolers doing arithmetic: the concepts are willing but the working memory is weak.

The study of early mathematical development provides important insights into young children's emerging academic competencies and, potentially, a basis for adapting instructional methods. We presented nonverbal forms of two- and three-term arithmetic problems to 4-year-olds to determine (a) the extent to which certain information-processing demands make some problems more difficult than others and (b) whether preschoolers use arithmetic concepts spontaneously when solving novel problems. Children's accuracy on simple arithmetic problems (a + b and a - b) was strongly related (r2 = .88) to representational set size, the maximum number of units that need to be held in working memory to solve a given problem. Some children also showed spontaneous use of procedures based on the arithmetic principle of inversion when solving problems of the form a + b - b. These results highlight the importance of identifying information-processing and conceptual characteristics in the early development of mathematical cognition.

Child Development↗
PubMed1996

The extension of the interference effect to multiplication.

Using multiplication facts, this experiment demonstrated an interference effect in the number-matching task. Here, subjects verified the presence of a target number (e.g., 8) in a previously presented cue (e.g., 5 x 8) that was masked after 60 ms. The SOAs between cue and target were 100, 120, 220, and 350 ms. Subjects were slower to reject targets that were the product of the cue (e.g., 40) than to reject unrelated targets (e.g., 42), but this was true only at the 100- and 120-ms SOAs (i.e., the interference effect). This pattern is consistent with the interference effect found by LeFevre and colleagues using addition facts. Furthermore, the present result supports the interpretation that the interference effect previously found with addition facts was due to obligatory activation and not to automatic counting.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Changes with age in measures of processing efficiency.

Children of 3 ages (8, 10, and 12 years) and adults were asked to decide rapidly whether 2 line drawings were same or different based on either physical appearance (physical match) or name information (name match). Reaction times were used to estimate several temporal measures of information-processing efficiency, such as the difference between different and same judgments, the difference between name-match and physical-match judgments, and 2 types of interference. Different judgments required more time than same judgments for children but not for adults, and the difference between these decreased with age. As expected, name judgments required more time than physical judgments, but the difference did not decrease regularly with age. Interference in name-match decisions due to conflicting and irrelevant physical information decreased with age; however, interference in physical-match judgments due to conflicting and irrelevant name information does not decline with age and was a significant factor in the performance of older children and adults. The results underscore the complex character of developmental change in processing efficiency.

Adolescent↗