title: Creating semantics in tool use.
abstract: This article presents the first evidence for a functional link between tool use and the processing of abstract symbols like Arabic numbers. Participants were required to perform a tool-use task after the processing of an Arabic number. These numbers represented either a small (2 or 3) or a large magnitude (8 or 9). The tool-use task consisted in using inverse pliers for gripping either a small or a large object. The inverse pliers enable to dissociate the hand action from the tool action in relation to the object (i.e., closing the hand led to an opening of the tool and vice versa). The number/tool hypothesis predicts that the quantity representation associated with Arabic numbers will interact with the action of the tool toward the object. Conversely, the number/hand hypothesis predicts that the quantity associated with numbers will interact with the action of the hand toward the tool. Results confirmed the first hypothesis and rejected the second. Indeed, large numbers interacted with the action of the tool, such that participants were longer to perform an "opening-hand/closing-tool" action after the processing of large numbers. Moreover, no effect was detected for small numbers, confirming previous studies which used only finger movements. Altogether, our finding suggests that the well-known finger/number interaction can be reversed with tool use.
authors.affiliation: CNRS, INCIA - Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d'Aquitaine (UMR 5287), Université de Bordeaux, Bât. 2A- 2ème étage, 146 rue Léo Saignat, 33076, Bordeaux Cedex, France. arnaud.badets@u-bordeaux.fr.
authors.forename: Arnaud
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Badets
authors.affiliation: Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives, CNRS, Université de Bordeaux, 33000, Bordeaux Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Michelet
authors.affiliation: CNRS, INCIA - Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d'Aquitaine (UMR 5287), Université de Bordeaux, Bât. 2A- 2ème étage, 146 rue Léo Saignat, 33076, Bordeaux Cedex, France.|Centre for Sensorimotor Performance, School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
authors.forename: Aymar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Rugy
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs (EA 3082), Université de Lyon, Lyon, France.|Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France.
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Osiurak
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003405:Creativity; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand; D018737:Hand Strength / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012660:Semantics; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Ideomotor mechanism; Number processing; Tool use