title: Which numbers do you have in mind? Number generation is influenced by reading direction.
abstract: In Western participants, small numbers are associated with left and larger numbers with right space. A biological account proposes that brain asymmetries lead to these attentional asymmetries in number space. In contrast, a cultural account proposes that the direction of this association is shaped by reading direction. We explored whether number generation is influenced by reading direction in participants from a left-to-right (UK) and a right-to-left (Arab) reading culture. Participants generated numbers randomly while lying on their left and right side. The mean number generated by participants from a left-to-right reading culture was smaller when they lay on their left than on their right side, and the opposite was found for participants from a right-to-left reading culture. Asymmetries in number space observed in number generation are more compatible with a cultural than biological account.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, England, UK, silke.goebel@york.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Silke M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Göbel
authors.forename: Carolin A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Maier
authors.forename: Samuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shaki
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D011932:Reading; D065855:Spatial Processing / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult