Retrieval processes in arithmetic production and verification.

To investigate whether arithmetic production and verification involve the same retrieval processes, we alternated multiplication production trials (e.g., 9 x 6 = ?) with verification trials (4 x 9 = 36, true or false?) and analyzed positive error priming. Positive error priming is the phenomenon in which errors frequently match correct answers from preceding problems. Production errors were strongly primed by previous production trials (the error-answer matching rate was about 90% greater than expected by chance), but production errors were not strongly primed by previous verification trials (approximately 13% above chance). Conversely, false-verification errors were primed by previous verification trials (approximately 25% above chance), but not by production trials. The results indicated that arithmetic production and verification were mediated by different memory processes and suggest a familiarity-based over a retrieval-based model of arithmetic verification.