Instruction effects in mental arithmetic: The role of working memory and the influence of gender

This study aimed at testing instruction effects on adults’ arithmetic performance: What happens when people are asked to respond as quickly and/or as accurately as possible? The role of working memory and the influence of gender were tested as well. Males and females solved simple additions (Exp.1) or simple multiplications (Exp.2) under load and no-load conditions and provided trial-by-trial strategy reports. The instructions affected participants’ accuracies, response times, and strategy choices. No main effect of gender was observed, but several interactions were detected (gender x instruction and gender x load). The relevance of gender differences in mathematics will be discussed