ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors utilize use neuropsychological approach to analyze the cognitive mechanisms implicated in calculation and calculation deficits. They focus on the analysis of patterns of calculation impairments as a data base from which to infer the structure of those cognitive mechanisms that constitute the calculation process. The authors explain consistent with the general architecture of the calculation system. To perform calculation successfully, one must be able to process the operational signs/words in order to retrieve specific arithmetic facts and calculation procedures. Selective disruption of the calculation procedure system results in diverse patterns of deficits involving different component parts of the procedures. A more dramatic form of procedure deficit involves the inability to carry out the computational step in the prescribed sequence—in other words, a deficit involving the overall organization of the component steps of a calculation procedure. The authors describe concerning procedure deficits concerns the dissociation of processing deficits for different types of operations.
