title: Finger posing primes number comprehension.
abstract: Canonical finger postures, as used in counting, activate number knowledge, but the exact mechanism for this priming effect is unclear. Here we dissociated effects of visual versus motor priming of number concepts. In Experiment 1, participants were exposed either to pictures of canonical finger postures (visual priming) or actively produced the same finger postures (motor priming) and then used foot responses to rapidly classify auditory numbers (targets) as smaller or larger than 5. Classification times revealed that manually adopted but not visually perceived postures primed magnitude classifications. Experiment 2 obtained motor priming of number processing through finger postures also with vocal responses. Priming only occurred through canonical and not through non-canonical finger postures. Together, these results provide clear evidence for motor priming of number knowledge. Relative contributions of vision and action for embodied numerical cognition and the importance of canonicity of postures are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cognitive Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24/25, 14476, Potsdam, Germany. esixtus@uni-potsdam.de.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1307-1484
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sixtus
authors.affiliation: Division of Cognitive Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24/25, 14476, Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.affiliation: Division of Cognitive Sciences, Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24/25, 14476, Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Lindemann
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D011187:Posture; D014785:Vision, Ocular; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Embodied cognition; Finger counting; Numerical cognition; Priming