EXACT AND INFERENTIAL MEMORIES IN MENTAL ARITHMETIC

In this research we investigate the relevance of a distinction between an exact memory and an inferential memory. In the two studies, on 140 fourth- and fifth-graders and on 456 adult students respectively, the subjects are first informed of a numerical material: an arithmetic ve rbal problem or a mental calculation (e.g. 86 + 47 + 93 + 52). Then th ey are tested both on exact data and on data that can be inferred from the information previously given. The research does not clearly suppo rt an independence between the two forms of memory. However, it shows evidence for a lower sensitivity to priming of the exact memory. Furth ermore, the second study demonstrates that the mental arithmetic split effect (Ashcraft, 1992) can be differentiated following the arithmeti cal operations: additive operations are more sensitive to it than mult iplicative operations.