The primary purpose of the study was to determine if computer-based training programs promoted fluent and flexible use of reasoning strategies to solve addition problems using different tasks. Specifically, does participation in strategy training result in the fluent application of the target strategy on a traditional mental arithmetic task? Does…

In a 9-month training experiment, 64 first graders with a risk factor were randomly assigned to computer-assisted structured discovery of the add-1 rule (e.g., the sum of 7 + 1 is the number after "seven" when we count), unstructured discovery learning of this regularity, or an active-control group. Planned contrasts revealed that the…

Addition strategies used by 36 kindergarten children were examined. Children were given written stimuli (such as "2+5" and "3+7") during two sessions taking place a week apart. Results indicated that once children came to rely on mental addition strategies, they often quickly invented more economical procedures to compute sums. Also confirmed was…

Using R. S. Siegler's retrieval-required task, 19 male and 22 female third graders were examined before they had been introduced to multiplication in school. Examination of error patterns suggests that the basic assumptions of the distribution-of-associations model need to be tested directly and that the retrieval-required task confounds retrieved…

A training experiment with 30 mentally handicapped children tested two models of mental-arithmetic development. Children's initial responses to a mental-addition task appeared to be the product of a mechanical prescription. Errors appeared to be more errors of method than of recall. (MNS)