Numbers and space: associations and dissociations.
A cornerstone of contemporary research in numerical cognition is the surprising link found between numbers and space. In particular, people react faster and more accurately to small numbers with a left-hand key and to large numbers with a right-hand key. Because this contingency is found in a variety of tasks, it has been taken to support the automatic activation of magnitude as well as the notion of a mental number line arranged from left to right. The present study challenges the presence of a link between left-right location, on the one hand, and small-large number, on the other hand. We show that a link exists between space and relative magnitude, a relationship that might or might not be unique to numbers.
Nathan
Merav Ben
MB
Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel. merav20@gmail.com
Shaki
Samuel
S
Salti
Moti
M
Algom
Daniel
D
D001244:Association; D003210:Concept Formation; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008433:Mathematics; D009949:Orientation; D011340:Problem Solving; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time