Fast and Slow Strategies in Multiplication

In solving multiplication problems, children use both fast, retrieval-based, processes, and, slower computational processes. In the current study, we applied a tree-based item response-modeling framework to disentangling these strategies using information contained in the observed response latencies. Results showed qualitative differences between the fast and the slow strategies. Building on these results, both item and person characteristics, resulting from substantive models of multiplication, were differently related to fast and slow processes.