title: On the relative speed account of number-size interference in comparative judgments of numerals.
abstract: Humans show systematic congruency effects due to irrelevant variations of the numerical value or the physical size of digits in judgments about either of these 2 attributes alone. According to influential models (e.g., J. Tzelgov, J. Meyer, & A. Henik, 1992), these effects are characterized by genuine asymmetries of size and number processing not accounted for by simple relative speed considerations, whereas some recent work (e.g., A. Pansky & D. Algom, 1999) partly challenges this view. This article presents 2 qualitative gradient-based predictions made by relative speed models and a diffusion-based implementation of the relative speed view to quantitatively account for response times and error rates in comparative judgments of digits. The results of 2 experiments using a completely task-symmetric design are in accord with these detailed predictions; they are also consistent with the view that both number and size are converted into magnitude representations of similar structure.
authors.affiliation: Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. schwarz@nici.kun.nl
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Schwarz
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ischebeck
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008954:Models, Biological; D011897:Random Allocation; D011930:Reaction Time; D013997:Time Factors