TY - JOUR A1 - Myachykov, Andriy A1 - Ellis, Rob A1 - Cangelosi, Angelo A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Ocular drift along the mental number line JF - Psychological research : an international journal of perception, attention, memory, and action N2 - We examined the spontaneous association between numbers and space by documenting attention deployment and the time course of associated spatial-numerical mapping with and without overt oculomotor responses. In Experiment 1, participants maintained central fixation while listening to number names. In Experiment 2, they made horizontal target-direct saccades following auditory number presentation. In both experiments, we continuously measured spontaneous ocular drift in horizontal space during and after number presentation. Experiment 2 also measured visual-probe-directed saccades following number presentation. Reliable ocular drift congruent with a horizontal mental number line emerged during and after number presentation in both experiments. Our results provide new evidence for the implicit and automatic nature of the oculomotor resonance effect associated with the horizontal spatial-numerical mapping mechanism. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-015-0731-4 SN - 0340-0727 SN - 1430-2772 VL - 80 SP - 379 EP - 388 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - GEN A1 - Myachykov, Andriy A1 - Ellis, Rob A1 - Cangelosi, Angelo A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Ocular drift along the mental number line T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - We examined the spontaneous association between numbers and space by documenting attention deployment and the time course of associated spatial-numerical mapping with and without overt oculomotor responses. In Experiment 1, participants maintained central fixation while listening to number names. In Experiment 2, they made horizontal target-direct saccades following auditory number presentation. In both experiments, we continuously measured spontaneous ocular drift in horizontal space during and after number presentation. Experiment 2 also measured visual-probe-directed saccades following number presentation. Reliable ocular drift congruent with a horizontal mental number line emerged during and after number presentation in both experiments. Our results provide new evidence for the implicit and automatic nature of the oculomotor resonance effect associated with the horizontal spatial-numerical mapping mechanism. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 553 KW - catch trial KW - number word KW - numerical magnitude KW - saccade task KW - SNARC effect Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-430483 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 553 SP - 379 EP - 388 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fischer, Martin H. A1 - Shaki, Samuel T1 - Measuring spatial-numerical associations: evidence for a purely conceptual link JF - Psychological research : an international journal of perception, attention, memory, and action N2 - Previous work on spatial-numerical association (SNAs) included either spatially distributed stimuli or responses. This raises the possibility that the inferred spatial nature of number concepts was a methodological artifact. We present results from a novel task that involves two categories (spatially oriented objects and number magnitudes) and dissociates spatial classification from number classification. The results reveal SNAs without inferential limitations of previous work and point to a working memory mechanism that transfers spatial coding across categories. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-015-0646-0 SN - 0340-0727 SN - 1430-2772 VL - 80 SP - 109 EP - 112 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gerth, Sabrina A1 - Klassert, Annegret A1 - Dolk, Thomas A1 - Fliesser, Michael A1 - Fischer, Martin H. A1 - Nottbusch, Guido A1 - Festman, Julia T1 - Is Handwriting Performance Affected by the Writing Surface? Comparing Tablet vs. Paper JF - Frontiers in psychology KW - handwriting KW - movement kinematics KW - writing acquisition KW - children KW - graphomotor control KW - tablet Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01308 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 7 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gerth, Sabrina A1 - Klassert, Annegret A1 - Dolk, Thomas A1 - Fliesser, Michael A1 - Fischer, Martin H. A1 - Nottbusch, Guido A1 - Festman, Julia T1 - Is Handwriting Performance Affected by the Writing Surface? BT - Comparing Preschoolers', Second Graders', and Adults' Writing Performance on a Tablet vs. Paper JF - Frontiers in psychology N2 - Due to their multifunctionality, tablets offer tremendous advantages for research on handwriting dynamics or for interactive use of learning apps in schools. Further, the widespread use of tablet computers has had a great impact on handwriting in the current generation. But, is it advisable to teach how to write and to assess handwriting in pre- and primary schoolchildren on tablets rather than on paper? Since handwriting is not automatized before the age of 10 years, children's handwriting movements require graphomotor and visual feedback as well as permanent control of movement execution during handwriting. Modifications in writing conditions, for instance the smoother writing surface of a tablet, might influence handwriting performance in general and in particular those of non-automatized beginning writers. In order to investigate how handwriting performance is affected by a difference in friction of the writing surface, we recruited three groups with varying levels of handwriting automaticity: 25 preschoolers, 27 second graders, and 25 adults. We administered three tasks measuring graphomotor abilities, visuomotor abilities, and handwriting performance (only second graders and adults). We evaluated two aspects of handwriting performance: the handwriting quality with a visual score and the handwriting dynamics using online handwriting measures [e.g., writing duration, writing velocity, strokes and number of inversions in velocity (NIV)]. In particular, NIVs which describe the number of velocity peaks during handwriting are directly related to the level of handwriting automaticity. In general, we found differences between writing on paper compared to the tablet. These differences were partly task-dependent. The comparison between tablet and paper revealed a faster writing velocity for all groups and all tasks on the tablet which indicates that all participants—even the experienced writers—were influenced by the lower friction of the tablet surface. Our results for the group-comparison show advancing levels in handwriting automaticity from preschoolers to second graders to adults, which confirms that our method depicts handwriting performance in groups with varying degrees of handwriting automaticity. We conclude that the smoother tablet surface requires additional control of handwriting movements and therefore might present an additional challenge for learners of handwriting. KW - handwriting KW - movement kinematics KW - writing acquisition KW - children KW - graphomotor control KW - tablet Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01308 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 7 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - GEN A1 - Gerth, Sabrina A1 - Klassert, Annegret A1 - Dolk, Thomas A1 - Fliesser, Michael A1 - Fischer, Martin H. A1 - Nottbusch, Guido A1 - Festman, Julia T1 - Is Handwriting Performance Affected by the Writing Surface? BT - Comparing Preschoolers', Second Graders', and Adults' Writing Performance on a Tablet vs. Paper N2 - Due to their multifunctionality, tablets offer tremendous advantages for research on handwriting dynamics or for interactive use of learning apps in schools. Further, the widespread use of tablet computers has had a great impact on handwriting in the current generation. But, is it advisable to teach how to write and to assess handwriting in pre- and primary schoolchildren on tablets rather than on paper? Since handwriting is not automatized before the age of 10 years, children's handwriting movements require graphomotor and visual feedback as well as permanent control of movement execution during handwriting. Modifications in writing conditions, for instance the smoother writing surface of a tablet, might influence handwriting performance in general and in particular those of non-automatized beginning writers. In order to investigate how handwriting performance is affected by a difference in friction of the writing surface, we recruited three groups with varying levels of handwriting automaticity: 25 preschoolers, 27 second graders, and 25 adults. We administered three tasks measuring graphomotor abilities, visuomotor abilities, and handwriting performance (only second graders and adults). We evaluated two aspects of handwriting performance: the handwriting quality with a visual score and the handwriting dynamics using online handwriting measures [e.g., writing duration, writing velocity, strokes and number of inversions in velocity (NIV)]. In particular, NIVs which describe the number of velocity peaks during handwriting are directly related to the level of handwriting automaticity. In general, we found differences between writing on paper compared to the tablet. These differences were partly task-dependent. The comparison between tablet and paper revealed a faster writing velocity for all groups and all tasks on the tablet which indicates that all participants—even the experienced writers—were influenced by the lower friction of the tablet surface. Our results for the group-comparison show advancing levels in handwriting automaticity from preschoolers to second graders to adults, which confirms that our method depicts handwriting performance in groups with varying degrees of handwriting automaticity. We conclude that the smoother tablet surface requires additional control of handwriting movements and therefore might present an additional challenge for learners of handwriting. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 308 KW - children KW - graphomotor control KW - handwriting KW - movement kinematics KW - tablet KW - writing acquisition Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-100384 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lachmair, Martin A1 - Fernandez, Susana Ruiz A1 - Bury, Nils-Alexander A1 - Gerjets, Peter A1 - Fischer, Martin H. A1 - Bock, Otmar L. T1 - How Body Orientation Affects Concepts of Space, Time and Valence: Functional Relevance of Integrating Sensorimotor Experiences during Word Processing JF - PLoS one Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0165795 SN - 1932-6203 VL - 11 PB - PLoS CY - San Fransisco ER - TY - GEN A1 - Lachmair, Martin A1 - Ruiz Fernandez, Susana A1 - Bury, Nils-Alexander A1 - Gerjets, Peter A1 - Fischer, Martin H. A1 - Bock, Otmar L. T1 - How body orientation affects concepts of space, time and valence BT - functional relevance of integrating sensorimotor experiences during word processing T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - The aim of the present study was to test the functional relevance of the spatial concepts UP or DOWN for words that use these concepts either literally (space) or metaphorically (time, valence). A functional relevance would imply a symmetrical relationship between the spatial concepts and words related to these concepts, showing that processing words activate the related spatial concepts on one hand, but also that an activation of the concepts will ease the retrieval of a related word on the other. For the latter, the rotation angle of participant's body position was manipulated either to an upright or a head-down tilted body position to activate the related spatial concept. Afterwards participants produced in a within-subject design previously memorized words of the concepts space, time and valence according to the pace of a metronome. All words were related either to the spatial concept UP or DOWN. The results including Bayesian analyses show (1) a significant interaction between body position and words using the concepts UP and DOWN literally, (2) a marginal significant interaction between body position and temporal words and (3) no effect between body position and valence words. However, post-hoc analyses suggest no difference between experiments. Thus, the authors concluded that integrating sensorimotor experiences is indeed of functional relevance for all three concepts of space, time and valence. However, the strength of this functional relevance depends on how close words are linked to mental concepts representing vertical space. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 505 KW - mental timeline KW - cognition KW - language KW - representation KW - hypothesis KW - mechanisms KW - future KW - flies KW - line KW - mind Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-410942 SN - 1866-8364 IS - 505 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Fischer, Martin H. A1 - Matheja, Anna T1 - Grenzüberschreitungen in der Kognition BT - Wahrnehmung, Denken und Handeln T2 - Grenzen im Fokus der Wissenschaften Y1 - 2016 SP - 197 EP - 212 PB - Trafo CY - Berlin ER - TY - GEN A1 - Hartmann, Matthias A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Exploring the numerical mind by eye-tracking: a special issue T2 - Psychological research : an international journal of perception, attention, memory, and action Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-016-0759-0 SN - 0340-0727 SN - 1430-2772 VL - 80 SP - 325 EP - 333 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - GEN A1 - Wiemers, Michael A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Effects of hand proximity and movement direction in spatial and temporal gap discrimination T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Previous research on the interplay between static manual postures and visual attention revealed enhanced visual selection near the hands (near-hand effect). During active movements there is also superior visual performance when moving toward compared to away from the stimulus (direction effect). The "modulated visual pathways" hypothesis argues that differential involvement of magno- and parvocellular visual processing streams causes the near-hand effect. The key finding supporting this hypothesis is an increase in temporal and a reduction in spatial processing in near-hand space (Gozli et al., 2012). Since this hypothesis has, so far, only been tested with static hand postures, we provide a conceptual replication of Gozli et al.'s (2012) result with moving hands, thus also probing the generality of the direction effect. Participants performed temporal or spatial gap discriminations while their right hand was moving below the display. In contrast to Gozli et al (2012), temporal gap discrimination was superior at intermediate and not near hand proximity. In spatial gap discrimination, a direction effect without hand proximity effect suggests that pragmatic attentional maps overshadowed temporal/spatial processing biases for far/near-hand space. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Humanwissenschaftliche Reihe - 428 KW - attention KW - perception and action KW - two visual systems KW - visual perception KW - movement preparation Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-406568 IS - 428 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wiemers, Michael A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Effects of Hand Proximity and Movement Direction in Spatial and Temporal Gap Discrimination JF - Frontiers in psychology KW - attention KW - perception and action KW - two visual systems KW - visual perception KW - movement preparation Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01930 SN - 1664-1078 VL - 7 PB - Frontiers Research Foundation CY - Lausanne ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Achilles, E. I. S. A1 - Fink, G. R. A1 - Fischer, Martin H. A1 - Dovern, A. A1 - Held, A. A1 - Timpert, D. C. A1 - Schroeter, C. A1 - Schuetz, K. A1 - Kloetzsch, C. A1 - Weiss, P. H. T1 - Effect of meaning on apraxic finger imitation deficits JF - Neuropsychologia : an international journal in behavioural and cognitive neuroscience N2 - Apraxia typically results from left-hemispheric (LH), but also from right-hemispheric (RH) stroke, and often impairs gesture imitation. Especially in LH stroke, it is important to differentiate apraxia-induced gesture imitation deficits from those due to co-morbid aphasia and associated semantic deficits, possibly influencing the imitation of meaningful (MF) gestures. To explore this issue, we first investigated if the 10 supposedly meaningless (ML) gestures of a widely used finger imitation test really carry no meaning, or if the test also contains MF gestures, by asking healthy subjects (n=45) to classify these gestures as MF or ML. Most healthy subjects (98%) classified three of the 10 gestures as clearly MF. Only two gestures were considered predominantly ML. We next assessed how imitation in stroke patients (255 LH, 113 RH stroke) is influenced by gesture meaning and how aphasia influences imitation of LH stroke patients (n=208). All patients and especially patients with imitation deficits (17% of LH, 27% of RH stroke patients) imitated MF gestures significantly better than ML gestures. Importantly, meaningfulness-scores of all 10 gestures significantly predicted imitation scores of patients with imitation deficits. Furthermore, especially in LH stroke patients with imitation deficits, the severity of aphasia significantly influenced the imitation of MF, but not ML gestures. Our findings in a large patient cohort support current cognitive models of imitation and strongly suggest that ML gestures are particularly sensitive to detect imitation deficits while minimising confounding effects of aphasia which affect the imitation of MF gestures in LH stroke patients. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. KW - Apraxia KW - Meaning KW - Cognitive models of imitation Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.12.022 SN - 0028-3932 SN - 1873-3514 VL - 82 SP - 74 EP - 83 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hartmann, Matthias A1 - Mast, Fred W. A1 - Fischer, Martin H. T1 - Counting is a spatial process: evidence from eye movements JF - Psychological research : an international journal of perception, attention, memory, and action N2 - Spatial-numerical associations (small numbers-left/lower space and large numbers-right/upper space) are regularly found in simple number categorization tasks. These associations were taken as evidence for a spatially oriented mental number line. However, the role of spatial-numerical associations during more complex number processing, such as counting or mental arithmetic is less clear. Here, we investigated whether counting is associated with a movement along the mental number line. Participants counted aloud upward or downward in steps of 3 for 45 s while looking at a blank screen. Gaze position during upward counting shifted rightward and upward, while the pattern for downward counting was less clear. Our results, therefore, confirm the hypothesis of a movement along the mental number line for addition. We conclude that space is not only used to represent number magnitudes but also to actively operate on numbers in more complex tasks such as counting, and that the eyes reflect this spatial mental operation. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-015-0722-5 SN - 0340-0727 SN - 1430-2772 VL - 80 SP - 399 EP - 409 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gerth, Sabrina A1 - Dolk, Thomas A1 - Klassert, Annegret A1 - Fliesser, Michael A1 - Fischer, Martin H. A1 - Nottbusch, Guido A1 - Festman, Julia T1 - Adapting to the surface: A comparison of handwriting measures when writing on a tablet computer and on paper JF - Human movement science : a journal devoted to pure and applied research on human movement N2 - Our study addresses the following research questions: Are there differences between handwriting movements on paper and on a tablet computer? Can experienced writers, such as most adults, adapt their graphomotor execution during writing to a rather unfamiliar surface for instance a tablet computer? We examined the handwriting performance of adults in three tasks with different complexity: (a) graphomotor abilities, (b) visuomotor abilities and (c) handwriting. Each participant performed each task twice, once on paper and once on a tablet computer with a pen. We tested 25 participants by measuring their writing duration, in air time, number of pen lifts, writing velocity and number of inversions in velocity. The data were analyzed using linear mixed-effects modeling with repeated measures. Our results reveal differences between writing on paper and on a tablet computer which were partly task-dependent. Our findings also show that participants were able to adapt their graphomotor execution to the smoother surface of the tablet computer during the tasks. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Handwriting KW - Movement kinematics KW - Tablet computer KW - Handwriting movements adaptation KW - Graphomotor execution Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.humov.2016.04.006 SN - 0167-9457 SN - 1872-7646 VL - 48 SP - 62 EP - 73 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER -