TY - JOUR A1 - Schwarz, Wolfgang A1 - Eiselt, Anne-Kathrin T1 - Numerical distance effects in visual search JF - Attention, perception, & psychophysics : AP&P ; a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc. N2 - We present three experiments in which observers searched for a target digit among distractor digits in displays in which the mean numerical target-distractor distance was varied. Search speed and accuracy increased with numerical distance in both target-present and target-absent trials (Exp. 1A). In Experiment 1B, the target 5 was replaced with the letter S. The results suggest that the findings of Experiment 1A do not simply reflect the fact that digits that were numerically closer to the target coincidentally also shared more physical features with it. In Experiment 2, the numerical distance effect increased with set size in both target-present and target-absent trials. These findings are consistent with the view that increasing numerical target-distractor distance affords faster nontarget rejection and target identification times. Recent neurobiological findings (e.g., Nieder, 2011) on the neuronal coding of numerosity have reported a width of tuning curves of numerosity-selective neurons that suggests graded, distance-dependent coactivation of the representations of adjacent numbers, which in visual search would make it harder to reject numerically closer distractors as nontargets. KW - Numerical distance effect KW - Visual search KW - Category effect KW - Mental number line KW - Numerical magnitude Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-012-0342-8 SN - 1943-3921 VL - 74 IS - 6 SP - 1098 EP - 1103 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Shaki, Samuel A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Your neighbors define your value a study of spatial bias in number comparison JF - Acta psychologica : international journal of psychonomics N2 - Several chronometric biases in numerical cognition have informed our understanding of a mental number line (MNL). Complementing this approach, we investigated spatial performance in a magnitude comparison task. Participants located the larger or smaller number of a pair on a horizontal line representing the interval from 0 to 10. Experiments 1 and 2 used only number pairs one unit apart and found that digits were localized farther to the right with "select larger" instructions than with "select smaller" instructions. However, when numerical distance was varied (Experiment 3), digits were localized away from numerically near neighbors. This repulsion effect reveals context-specific distortions in number representation not previously noticed with chronometric measures. KW - Magnitude comparison KW - Mental number line KW - Numerical cognition KW - Spatial bias Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2013.01.004 SN - 0001-6918 VL - 142 IS - 3 SP - 308 EP - 313 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fischer, Martin H. A1 - Riello, Marianna A1 - Giordano, Bruno L. A1 - Rusconi, Elena T1 - Singing numbers ... in cognitive space - a dual-task study of the link between pitch, space, and numbers JF - Topics in cognitive science N2 - We assessed the automaticity of spatial-numerical and spatial-musical associations by testing their intentionality and load sensitivity in a dual-task paradigm. In separate sessions, 16 healthy adults performed magnitude and pitch comparisons on sung numbers with variable pitch. Stimuli and response alternatives were identical, but the relevant stimulus attribute (pitch or number) differed between tasks. Concomitant tasks required retention of either color or location information. Results show that spatial associations of both magnitude and pitch are load sensitive and that the spatial association for pitch is more powerful than that for magnitude. These findings argue against the automaticity of spatial mappings in either stimulus dimension. KW - Auditory pitch KW - Dual task KW - Mental number line KW - SMARC KW - SNARC KW - Spatial coding Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12017 SN - 1756-8757 VL - 5 IS - 2 SP - 354 EP - 366 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pinhas, Michal A1 - Shaki, Samuel A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Heed the signs: Operation signs have spatial associations JF - The quarterly journal of experimental psychology N2 - Mental arithmetic shows systematic spatial biases. The association between numbers and space is well documented, but it is unknown whether arithmetic operation signs also have spatial associations and whether or not they contribute to spatial biases found in arithmetic. Adult participants classified plus and minus signs with left and right button presses under two counterbalanced response rules. Results from two experiments showed that spatially congruent responses (i.e., right-side responses for the plus sign and left-side responses for the minus sign) were responded to faster than spatially incongruent ones (i.e., left-side responses for the plus sign and right-side responses for the minus sign). We also report correlations between this novel operation sign spatial association (OSSA) effect and other spatial biases in number processing. In a control experiment with no explicit processing requirements for the operation signs there were no sign-related spatial biases. Overall, the results suggest that (a) arithmetic operation signs can evoke spatial associations (OSSA), (b) experience with arithmetic operations probably underlies the OSSA, and (c) the OSSA only partially contributes to spatial biases in arithmetic. KW - Mental arithmetic KW - Mental number line KW - Operational momentum KW - Pointing KW - Spatial-numerical association of response codes effect Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2014.892516 SN - 1747-0218 SN - 1747-0226 VL - 67 IS - 8 SP - 1527 EP - 1540 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hartmann, Matthias A1 - Martarelli, Corinna S. A1 - Mast, Fred W. A1 - Stocker, Kurt T1 - Eye movements during mental time travel follow a diagonal line JF - Consciousness and cognition N2 - Recent research showed that past events are associated with the back and left side, whereas future events are associated with the front and right side of space. These spatial-temporal associations have an impact on our sensorimotor system: thinking about one's past and future leads to subtle body sways in the sagittal dimension of space (Miles, Nind, & Macrae, 2010). In this study we investigated whether mental time travel leads to sensorimotor correlates in the horizontal dimension of space. Participants were asked to mentally displace themselves into the past or future while measuring their spontaneous eye movements on a blank screen. Eye gaze was directed more rightward and upward when thinking about the future than when thinking about the past. Our results provide further insight into the spatial nature of temporal thoughts, and show that not only body, but also eye movements follow a (diagonal) "time line" during mental time travel. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. KW - Mental time travel KW - Eye movements KW - Mental time line KW - Spatial-temporal association KW - Future KW - Past KW - Embodied cognition KW - Metaphors KW - Mental number line Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2014.09.007 SN - 1053-8100 SN - 1090-2376 VL - 30 SP - 201 EP - 209 PB - Elsevier CY - San Diego ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Shaki, Samuel A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Random walks on the mental number line JF - Experimental brain research KW - Mental number line KW - RNG KW - SNARC KW - Spatial bias KW - Walking Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-013-3718-7 SN - 0014-4819 SN - 1432-1106 VL - 232 IS - 1 SP - 43 EP - 49 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Shaki, Samuel A1 - Sery, Noa A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - 1 + 2 is more than 2 + 1: Violations of commutativity and identity axioms in mental arithmetic JF - Journal of cognitive psychology N2 - Over the past decade or so, a large number of studies have revealed that conceptual meaning is sensitive to situational context. More recently, similar contextual influences have been documented in the domain of number knowledge. Here we show such context dependency in a length production task. Adult participants saw single digit addition problems of the form n1 + n2 and produced the sum by changing bi-directionally the length of a horizontally extended line, using radially arranged buttons. We found that longer lines were produced when n1 < n2 compared to n1 > n2 and that unit size increased with result size. Thus, the mathematical axioms of commutativity and identity do not seem to hold in mental addition. We discuss implications of these observations for our understanding of cognitive mechanisms involved in mental arithmetic and for situated cognition generally. KW - Operand order effect KW - Situated cognition KW - Mental number line KW - SNARC KW - Operational momentum Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2014.973414 SN - 2044-5911 SN - 2044-592X VL - 27 IS - 4 SP - 471 EP - 477 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Winter, Bodo A1 - Matlock, Teenie A1 - Shaki, Samuel A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Mental number space in three dimensions JF - Neuroscience & biobehavioral reviews : official journal of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society N2 - A large number of experimental findings from neuroscience and experimental psychology demonstrated interactions between spatial cognition and numerical cognition. In particular, many researchers posited a horizontal mental number line, where small numbers are thought of as being to the left of larger numbers. This review synthesizes work on the mental association between space and number, indicating the existence of multiple spatial mappings: recent research has found associations between number and vertical space, as well as associations between number and near/far space. We discuss number space in three dimensions with an eye on potential origins of the different number mappings, and how these number mappings fit in with our current knowledge of brain organization and brain-culture interactions. We derive novel predictions and show how this research fits into a general view of cognition as embodied, grounded and situated. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KW - Embodiment KW - Intra-parietal sulcus KW - Mental number line KW - Metaphor KW - Neglect KW - Spatial cognition KW - SNARC Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.09.005 SN - 0149-7634 SN - 1873-7528 VL - 57 SP - 209 EP - 219 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Pinhas, Michal A1 - Shaki, Samuel A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Addition goes where the big numbers are: evidence for a reversed operational momentum effect JF - Psychonomic bulletin & review : a journal of the Psychonomic Society N2 - Number processing evokes spatial biases, both when dealing with single digits and in more complex mental calculations. Here we investigated whether these two biases have a common origin, by examining their flexibility. Participants pointed to the locations of arithmetic results on a visually presented line with an inverted, right-to-left number arrangement. We found directionally opposite spatial biases for mental arithmetic and for a parity task administered both before and after the arithmetic task. We discuss implications of this dissociation in our results for the task-dependent cognitive representation of numbers. KW - Mental arithmetic KW - Mental number line KW - Operational momentum KW - Pointing KW - SNARC Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-014-0786-z SN - 1069-9384 SN - 1531-5320 VL - 22 IS - 4 SP - 993 EP - 1000 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Göbel, Silke M. A1 - McCrink, Koleen A1 - Fischer, Martin H. A1 - Shaki, Samuel T1 - Observation of directional storybook reading influences young children’s counting direction JF - Journal of experimental child psychology N2 - Even before formal schooling, children map numbers onto space in a directional manner. The origin of this preliterate spatial–numerical association is still debated. We investigated the role of enculturation for shaping the directionality of the association between numbers and space, focusing on counting behavior in 3- to 5-year-old preliterate children. Two studies provide evidence that, after observing reading from storybooks (left-to-right or right-to-left reading) children change their counting direction in line with the direction of observed reading. Just observing visuospatial directional movements had no such effect on counting direction. Complementarily, we document that book illustrations, prevalent in children’s cultures, exhibit directionality that conforms to the direction of a culture’s written language. We propose that shared book reading activates spatiotemporal representations of order in young children, which in turn affect their spatial representation of numbers. KW - Counting direction KW - Cross-cultural KW - Mental number line KW - Reading KW - Spatial-numerical association KW - Preschool children Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.08.001 SN - 0022-0965 SN - 1096-0457 VL - 166 SP - 49 EP - 66 PB - Elsevier CY - New York ER -