Extensive Practice in Mental Arithmetic and Practice Transfer Over a Ten-month Retention Interval

Abstract

Participants were trained on nine single-digit multiplication problems over three sessions. Transfer of practice was tested with nine different multiplication problems in the fourth session, for half the participants. Retention of problems was examined 10 months later. In addition, memory ratings were taken after practice and before retention. Response initiation time (RTinitiate), a measure of mental calculation time, decreased during the first two practice sessions, becoming asymptotic in the third. The problem-size effect decreased with practice but was not eliminated even at asymptotic response times. Response execution time (RTexecute), a measure of motor response execution, was not affected by problem size, indicating a dissociation between both measures. No overall transfer advantage from practised to new problems was observed for RTinitiate. However, learning curves within practice and transfer sessions suggested positive transfer at the beginning of the transfer session and negative transfer at t...