title: Mental representations of magnitude and order: a dissociation by sensorimotor learning.
abstract: Numbers and spatially directed actions share cognitive representations. This assertion is derived from studies that have demonstrated that the processing of small- and large-magnitude numbers facilitates motor behaviors that are directed to the left and right, respectively. However, little is known about the role of sensorimotor learning for such number-action associations. In this study, we show that sensorimotor learning in a serial reaction-time task can modify the associations between number magnitudes and spatially directed movements. Experiments 1 and 3 revealed that this effect is present only for the learned sequence and does not transfer to a novel unpracticed sequence. Experiments 2 and 4 showed that the modification of stimulus-action associations by sensorimotor learning does not occur for other sets of ordered stimuli such as letters of the alphabet. These results strongly suggest that numbers and actions share a common magnitude representation that differs from the common order representation shared by letters and spatially directed actions. Only the magnitude representation, but not the order representation, can be modified episodically by sensorimotor learning.
authors: Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l'Apprentissage, UMR-7295 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Poitiers, France. Electronic address: arnaud.badets@u-bordeaux.fr.
authors: Arnaud
authors: A
authors: Badets
authors: IfADo - Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund, Germany; Research Center at the Geriatric Institute of the University of Montreal - Functional Neuroimaging Unit, Montreal, Canada.
authors: Arnaud
authors: A
authors: Boutin
authors: IfADo - Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund, Germany.
authors: Herbert
authors: H
authors: Heuer
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011897:Random Allocation; D011930:Reaction Time; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Number representation; Sensorimotor learning; Sequential movements; Space representation