Cristobal81 (asker) May 30, 2011:

What Dlyons posted is the exact context prior to the term. Thank you all, once again!

DLyons May 30, 2011:

Context First graders were shown simple addition problems in the form m+n = __, and had to indicate the correct response.

Analysis of the data revealed a linearly increasing reaction time (RT) function across problems. To further determine the nature of the process accounting for the increasing slope, they considered five different counting models ... In all cases, they assumed that a mental counter was set to some value and was then incremented by ones until some final value was reached, at which point the final value was read out as the answer. The slope of the regression line was taken as an estimate of the time needed to increment the counter.

Regression analysis indicated that the best fitting model was provided by the Minimum Addend, a process known in educational settings as "counting on"; set the counter to the larger of the two values, then count on by ones for the value of the smaller number, the min, as in 3, 4, 5 for the problem 3 + 2.

In their analysis, the slope of the regression line was 410 ms, suggesting that first graders’ mental counting rate was roughly 400 ms per increment.

Charles Davis May 30, 2011:

Thanks Sorry to be difficult, Cristóbal, but would it be possible to see what comes just before this sentence? It may help to determine the nature of the "slope".

Cristobal81 (asker) May 30, 2011:

To further determine the nature of the process accounting for the increasing slope, they considered 5 different counting models, embedded in an information processing model inspired by the additive factors logic popularized by Sternberg at that time.

Thank you!!

Eileen Banks May 30, 2011:

I too need more context. Thank you

Charles Davis May 30, 2011:

More context, please.