Effects of operand order and problem repetition on error priming in cognitive arithmetic

Error priming is an inter-trial priming effect observed in arithmetic production tasks. In general, answers retrieved earlier in a trial sequence are promoted as errors on later trials (positive error priming). This interference from previous retrievals, however, is not observed for consecutive trials. Error-answer matches at trial lags of 1 (perseveration errors) are observed to be significantly below chance (negative error priming). This investigation tested the predictions of the network interference model (Campbell & Oliphant, 1992) that error priming effects would be sensitive to operand-relatedness and operand-position between the error problem and the matched problem. For positive error priming, the predictions of the model were partially supported: Positive error priming was strongest for problems sharing a common operand in the same problem position. Negative error priming was sensitive to operand-relatedness as predicted. The study also investigated the role of intention in negative error priming by manipulating the probability of immediate problem repetition. Negative error priming was not eliminated by repetition, suggesting that intention to prevent consecutive answer repetition is not a necessary condition of negative error priming. Perseveration errors were, however, increased for trials most similar to repetition trials suggesting that repetition elicited a repetition-detection process that had some cost to general performance.