At 4:09 PM -0600 2/22/01, Paul Brandon wrote:
>Cute!
>The easy way, of course, is to first add up the "thousands", then add up
>the "tens".
>It appears that the confusion results from generalization between hundreds
>and thousands. The "90" is a discriminative stimulus for preparing to
>increase the next decimal column by one. Since that column is vacant, one
>goes to the next column (thousands) and bumps 4000 up to 5000, rather than
>90 to 100. Experience solving problems doesn't always help!
Or to put it more simply,
When you say to yourself "four thousand ninety",
The "four thousand" calls your attention to that item,
the "ninety" prompts you to bump it up a digit.
* PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] *
* Psychology Dept Minnesota State University, Mankato *
* 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 *
* http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html *
