Posts in Category: poster

poster at a conference or research meeting

Paper: Arithmetic with Arabic vs. Roman numerals

… how information is represented can greatly affect how easy it is
to do different things with it. (…) it is easy to add, to subtract,
and even to multiply if the Arabic or binary representations are used,
but it is not at all easy to do these things — especially multiplication —
with Roman numerals.  This is a key reason why the Roman culture failed
to develop mathematics in the way the earlier Arabic cultures had.
D Marr (1982): Vision, p. 21

[Copyright, 2008]:

Dirk Schlimm and Hans Neth (2008).

Modeling ancient and modern arithmetic practices: Addition and multiplication with Arabic and Roman numerals. Paper presented at CogSci 2008.

Dirk Schlimm, Hansjörg Neth


Abstract:  To analyze the task of mental arithmetic with external representations in different number systems we model algorithms for addition and multiplication with Arabic and Roman numerals.  This demonstrates that Roman numerals are not only informationally equivalent to Arabic ones but also computationally similar — a claim that is widely disputed.  An analysis of our models’ elementary processing steps reveals intricate trade-offs between problem representation, algorithm, and interactive resources.  Our simulations allow for a more nuanced view of the received wisdom on Roman numerals.  While symbolic computation with Roman numerals requires fewer internal resources than with Arabic ones, the large number of needed symbols inflates the number of external processing steps.

Paper: Searching for counterexamples

If it was so, it might be;
and if it were so, it would be;
but as it isn’t, it ain’t.
That’s logic.
Tweedledee (Lewis Carroll,
Through the Looking Glass and
what Alice found there, 1872)

[Copyright, 1999-2014]:

Hans Neth and Phil Johnson-Laird (1999).

The search for counterexamples in human reasoning.

Poster presented at CogSci 1999.

Hansjörg Neth, Philip N. Johnson-Laird

The search for counterexamples in human reasoning




Neth and Johnson-Laird (1999): Counterexample




Related:   Suppression effects | Diploma thesis

Resources:  Download PDF | Google Scholar