Representation of Multiplication Facts-Evidence for partial verbal coding

Korbinian Moeller, Elise Klein, Martin H. Fischer, Hans-Christoph Nuerk, Klaus Willmes

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    12 Citations (Scopus)


    Background: The current view in numerical cognition research is that multiplication facts are stored and retrieved in a phonological code. Consistent with this view, it was found that multiplication could be impaired by a phonological but not by a visuo-spatial loading task. However, because the authors used an active production task, it remained unclear whether concurrent articulation impaired either access to multiplication facts or their retrieval.

    Methods: In the current study, we investigated the influence of concurrent articulation on multiplication fact knowledge without active production of multiplication results.

    Results: In a number bisection task, number triplets, which are part of a multiplication table, were classified faster as being correctly bisected than other triplets. Interestingly, concurrent articulation led to a relative slowing of the multiplicative triplets which reduced the multiplicativity effect.

    Conclusions: This result indicates that concurrent articulation modulates access to phonologically stored multiplication facts and corroborates the notion of multiplication facts being represented in an at least partially verbal code.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number25
    Pages (from-to)-
    Number of pages9
    JournalBehavioral and Brain Functions
    Publication statusPublished - 8 Jul 2011

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