scholarly journals Arabic digits and spoken number words: Timing modulates the cross-modal numerical distance effect

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (11) ◽  
pp. 2632-2646 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chia-Yuan Lin ◽  
Silke M Göbel

Moving seamlessly between spoken number words and Arabic digits is common in everyday life. In this study, we systematically investigated the correspondence between auditory number words and visual Arabic digits in adults. Auditory number words and visual Arabic digits were presented concurrently or sequentially and participants had to indicate whether they described the same quantity. We manipulated the stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) between the two stimuli (Experiment 1: −500 ms to +500 ms; Experiment 2: −200 ms to +200 ms). In both experiments, we found a significant cross-modal distance effect. This effect was strongest for simultaneous stimulus presentation and decreased with increasing SOAs. Numerical distance emerged as the most consistent significant predictor overall, in particular for simultaneous presentation. However, physical similarity between the stimuli was often a significant predictor of response times in addition to numerical distance, and at longer SOAs, physical similarity between the stimuli was the only significant predictor. This shows that SOA modulates the extent to which participants access quantity representations. Our results thus support the idea that a semantic quantity representation of auditory and visual numerical symbols is activated when participants perform a concurrent matching task, while at longer SOAs participants are more likely to rely on physical similarity between the stimuli. We also investigated whether individual differences in the efficiency of the cross-modal processing were related to differences in mathematical performance. Our results are inconclusive about whether the efficiency of cross-format numerical correspondence is related to mathematical competence in adults.

Neuroreport ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 991-994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinlin Zhou ◽  
Chuansheng Chen ◽  
Qi Dong ◽  
Hongchuan Zhang ◽  
Chunhui Chen ◽  
...  

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin A. Maloney ◽  
Evan F. Risko ◽  
Derek Besner ◽  
Jonathan A. Fugelsang

Author(s):  
Edita Poljac ◽  
Ab de Haan ◽  
Gerard P. van Galen

Two experiments investigated the way that beforehand preparation influences general task execution in reaction-time matching tasks. Response times (RTs) and error rates were measured for switching and nonswitching conditions in a color- and shape-matching task. The task blocks could repeat (task repetition) or alternate (task switch), and the preparation interval (PI) was manipulated within-subjects (Experiment 1) and between-subjects (Experiment 2). The study illustrated a comparable general task performance after a long PI for both experiments, within and between PI manipulations. After a short PI, however, the general task performance increased significantly for the between-subjects manipulation of the PI. Furthermore, both experiments demonstrated an analogous preparation effect for both task switching and task repetitions. Next, a consistent switch cost throughout the whole run of trials and a within-run slowing effect were observed in both experiments. Altogether, the present study implies that the effects of the advance preparation go beyond the first trials and confirms different points of the activation approach ( Altmann, 2002) to task switching.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-54
Author(s):  
Tianwei Gong ◽  
Baichen Li ◽  
Limei Teng ◽  
Zijun Zhou ◽  
Xuefei Gao ◽  
...  

Research on adults' numerical abilities suggests that number representations are spatially oriented. This association of numbers with spatial response is referred to as the SNARC (i.e., spatial–numerical association of response codes) effect. The notation-independence hypothesis of numeric processing predicts that the SNARC effect will not vary with notation (e.g., Arabic vs. number word). To test such assumption, the current study introduced an adaptive experimental procedure based on a simple perceptual orientation task that can automatically smooth out the mean reaction time difference between Arabic digits and traditional Chinese number. We found that the SNARC effect interacted with notation, showing a SNARC effect for Arabic digits, but not for verbal number words. The results of this study challenged the commonly held view that notation does not affect numerical processes associated with spatial representations. We introduced a parallel model to explain the notation-dependent SNARC effect in the perceptual orientation judgment task.


2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 174-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilka Diester ◽  
Andreas Nieder

Animals and humans share an evolutionary ancient quantity representation which is characterized by analog magnitude features: Discriminating magnitudes becomes more difficult with increasing set sizes (size effect) and with decreasing distance between two numerosities (distance effect). Humans show these effects even with number symbols. We wondered whether monkeys would show the same psychophysical effects with numerical signs and addressed this issue by training three monkeys to associate visual shapes with numerosities. We then confronted the monkeys with trials in which they had to match these visual signs with each other. The monkeys' performance in this shape versus shape protocol was positively correlated with the numerical distance and the magnitudes associated with the signs. Additionally, the monkeys responded significantly slower for signs with higher assigned numerical values. These findings suggest that the numerical values imprint their analog magnitudes characteristics onto the associated visual sign in monkeys, an effect that we also found reflected in the discharges of prefrontal neurons. This provides evidence for a precursor of the human number symbol knowledge.


2006 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 995-1007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rory Sayres ◽  
Kalanit Grill-Spector

Object-selective cortical regions exhibit a decreased response when an object stimulus is repeated [repetition suppression (RS)]. RS is often associated with priming: reduced response times and increased accuracy for repeated stimuli. It is unknown whether RS reflects stimulus-specific repetition, the associated changes in response time, or the combination of the two. To address this question, we performed a rapid event-related functional MRI (fMRI) study in which we measured BOLD signal in object-selective cortex, as well as object recognition performance, while we manipulated stimulus repetition. Our design allowed us to examine separately the roles of response time and repetition in explaining RS. We found that repetition played a robust role in explaining RS: repeated trials produced weaker BOLD responses than nonrepeated trials, even when comparing trials with matched response times. In contrast, response time played a weak role in explaining RS when repetition was controlled for: it explained BOLD responses only for one region of interest (ROI) and one experimental condition. Thus repetition suppression seems to be mostly driven by repetition rather than performance changes. We further examined whether RS reflects processes occurring at the same time as recognition or after recognition by manipulating stimulus presentation duration. In one experiment, durations were longer than required for recognition (2 s), whereas in a second experiment, durations were close to the minimum time required for recognition (85–101 ms). We found significant RS for brief presentations (albeit with a reduced magnitude), which again persisted when controlling for performance. This suggests a substantial amount of RS occurs during recognition.


1993 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 264-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanislas Dehaene

The notion that human perceptual decisions are based on discrete processing cycles rather than a continuous accumulation of information was examined experimentally. Significant periodicities were found in human response times (RT) to feature and conjunction discrimination tasks in the visual and auditory modalities. Individual RT histograms were multimodal, with regularly spaced peaks and troughs, indicating that responses were emitted more frequently at regularly recurring time intervals following stimulus presentation. On average, responses were initiated after four to seven discrete processing steps whose “quantum” duration was proportional to task difficulty.


Author(s):  
Titia Gebuis ◽  
Tanja C.W. Nijboer ◽  
Maarten J. van der Smagt

Grapheme-color synesthetes experience a specific color when they see a grapheme but they do not report to perceive a grapheme when a color is presented. In this study, we investigate whether color can still evoke number-processes even when a vivid number experience is absent. We used color-number and number-color priming, both revealing faster responses in congruent compared to incongruent conditions. Interestingly, the congruency effect was of similar magnitude for both conditions, and a numerical distance effect was present only in the color-number priming task. In addition, a priming task in which synesthetes had to judge the parity of a colored number revealed faster responses in parity congruent than in parity incongruent trials. These combined results demonstrate that synesthesia is indeed bi-directional and of similar strength in both directions. Furthermore, they illustrate the precise nature of these interactions and show that the direction of these interactions is determined by task demands, not by the more vividly experienced aspect of the stimulus.


Author(s):  
Raymond B. Webster

This study was conducted in order to investigate the effects of distortion, fill and noise effects on pattern discrimination. Patterns were generated from a 10 × 10 matrix on a random basis and were comprised of black filled squares. There were four levels of pattern fill or complexity. Distortion was the random displacement of basic pattern elements while noise was the filling in of additionally selected (on a random basis) pattern elements. One hundred and forty-four male and female undergraduates served as the subjects. Patterns were projected automatically with a stimulus presentation time of 3.0-sec. and a constant intertrial interval of 5.0-sec. The method of constant stimuli was employed. The results indicated that the discrimination of patterns, as generated in this study, were significantly effected by fill, noise, and distortion at the 0.01 level. Interaction effects were significant also at the same level. Response times were also significantly affected as a function of fill and noise.


1988 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 643-648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Fucci ◽  
Daniel Harris ◽  
Linda Petrosino ◽  
Elizabeth Randolph-Tyler

The purpose of the present study was to investigate possible effects of exposure upon suprathreshold psychological responses when auditory magnitude estimation and cross-modal matching with audition as the standard are conducted within the same experiment. Four groups of 10 subjects each whose over-all age range was 18 to 23 yr. were employed. During the cross-modal marching task the Groups 1 and 2 subjects adjusted a vibrotactile stimulus presented to the dorsal surface of the tongue and the Groups 3 and 4 subjects adjusted a vibrotactile stimulus presented to the thenar eminence of the right hand to match binaurally presented auditory stimuli. The magnitude-estimation task was conducted before the cross-modal matching task for Groups 1 and 3 and the cross-modal matching task was conducted before the magnitude-estimation task for Groups 2 and 4. The psychophysical methods of magnitude estimation and cross-modal matching showed no effect of one upon the other when used in the same experiment.


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