title: Walking boosts your performance in making additions and subtractions.
abstract: Previous research demonstrates that the processing of spatial information and numerical magnitude are strictly interwoven. Recent studies also provide converging evidence that number processing is influenced by body movements. In the present study we further investigate this issue by focusing on whether and how motions experienced with the whole body can influence arithmetical calculations. We asked participants to make additions or subtractions while experiencing leftward and rightward motions. Data revealed the emergence of a congruency effect between the orientation inferred by the type of arithmetical calculations and the type of motions experienced along an horizontal axis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bologna Bologna, Italy ; Department of Philosophy and Communication Studies, University of Bologna Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Filomena
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Anelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Philosophy and Communication Studies, University of Bologna Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Luisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lugli
authors.affiliation: Department of Philosophy and Communication Studies, University of Bologna Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Giulia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Baroni
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Bologna Bologna, Italy ; Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, Italian National Research Council Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Borghi
authors.affiliation: Department of Philosophy and Communication Studies, University of Bologna Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nicoletti
keywords: arithmetical calculations; body motion; embodied cognition; horizontal axis; numerical cognition