The spatial coding mechanism of ordinal symbols: a study based on the ordinal position effect

Serial orders are thought to be spatially represented in working memory: The beginning items in the memorised sequence are associated with the left side of space and the ending items are associated with the right side of space. However, the origin of this ordinal position effect has remained unclear. It was suggested that the direction of serial order–space interaction is related to the reading/writing experience. An alternative hypothesis is that it originates from the “more is right”/“more is up” spatial metaphors we use in daily life. We can adjudicate between the two viewpoints in Chinese readers; they read left-to-right but also have a culturally ancient top-to-bottom reading/writing direction. Thus, the reading/writing viewpoint predicts no or a top-to-bottom effect in serial order–space interaction; whereas the spatial metaphor theory predicts a clear bottom-to-top effect. We designed four experiments to investigate this issue. First, we found a left-to-right ordinal position effect, replicating results obtained in Western populations. However, the vertical ordinal position effect was in the bottom-to-top direction; moreover, it was modulated by hand position (e.g., left hand bottom or up). We suggest that order–space interactions may originate from different sources and are driven by metaphoric comprehension, which itself may ground cognitive processing.

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The Mechanism of the Ordinal Position Effect: Stability Across Sense Modalities and the Hands Crossed Context

i-Perception ◽

10.1177/2041669519841071 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 204166951984107 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Qiangqiang Wang ◽

Tingting Nie ◽

Weixia Zhang ◽

Wendian Shi

Keyword(s):

Position Effect ◽

Random Order ◽

Ordinal Position ◽

Auditory Modality ◽

Order Information ◽

Sense Modality ◽

Relevant Task ◽

The Right ◽

Sense Modalities

The ordinal position effect posits that items positioned earlier in an ordinal sequence are responded to faster with the left key than the right key, and items positioned later in an ordinal sequence are responded to faster with the right key than the left key. Although the mechanism of the ordinal position effect has been investigated in many studies, it is unclear whether the ordinal position effect can extend to the auditory modality and the hands crossed context. Therefore, the present study employed days as the order information to investigate this question. Days were visually or acoustically displayed on a screen in random order, and participants were instructed to judge whether the probe day they perceived was before or after the current day (days-relevant task) or to identify the color or voice of the probe day they perceived (days-irrelevant task). The results indicate the following: (a) The days before the current day were responded to faster with the left key than the right key, and the days after the current day were responded to faster with the right key than the left key, both when the days-relevant task and the days-irrelevant task were performed, regardless of the sense modality. (b) The ordinal position effect for judgments of days was also obtained in the auditory modality even when the hands were crossed. These results indicate that the ordinal position effect can extend to the auditory modality and the hands crossed context, similar to the spatial-numerical association of response codes effect of numbers.

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The empirical reach of the ´mental whiteboard´: A commentary on Ginsburg et al. (2017)

10.31234/osf.io/k7v8f ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Elger Abrahamse ◽

Alessandro Guida

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Boundary Conditions ◽

Position Effect ◽

Serial Order ◽

Ordinal Position

In a recent study, Ginsburg and colleagues (2017) explored the boundary conditions of the ordinal position effect, which refers to the horizontal format with which (non-spatial) item sequences have been observed to be represented in working memory. On the basis of 6 experiments on the ordinal position effect, they conclude that serial order in working memory is spatial by nature only if the memoranda are processed semantically. In this commentary we explain why we feel that Ginsburg et al.’s (2017) conclusions are premature, and how they inspire specific guidelines for a more optimal study of ´spatialization´ for serial order in working memory.

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The influence of the location of ordered symbols on the ordinal position effect: The involvement of the task performed

Acta Psychologica ◽

10.1016/j.actpsy.2019.102978 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 202 ◽

pp. 102978 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Wendian Shi ◽

Qiangqiang Wang ◽

Mianlin Deng ◽

Dezhen Xu

Keyword(s):

Position Effect ◽

Ordinal Position

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The ordinal position effect

Quarterly Journal of Speech ◽

10.1080/00335635309381862 ◽

1953 ◽

Vol 39 (2) ◽

pp. 217-219 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Sam L. Becker

Keyword(s):

Position Effect ◽

Ordinal Position

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The metaphoric nature of the ordinal position effect

10.31234/osf.io/49va7 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dandan Zhou ◽

Hanxi Zhong ◽

Dong Wenshan ◽

Li Min ◽

Tom Verguts ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Processing ◽

Alternative Hypothesis ◽

Position Effect ◽

Serial Order ◽

Ordinal Position ◽

Writing Theory ◽

Metaphor Theory ◽

The Right ◽

Bottom To Top ◽

Chinese Subjects

Serial orders are thought to be spatially represented in working memory: The beginning items in the memorized sequence are associated with the left side of space and the ending items associated with the right side of space. However, the origin of this ordinal position effect has remained unclear. It was suggested (Guida, et al., 2018) that the reading / writing experience shapes the direction of serial order-space interaction. An alternative hypothesis is that it originates from the “more is right” / “more is up” spatial metaphors we use in daily life (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003). We can adjudicate between the two theories in Chinese subjects; they read left-to-right, but also have a culturally ancient top-to-bottom reading / writing direction. Thus, the reading / writing theory predicts no or a top-to-bottom effect in serial order-space interaction; whereas the spatial metaphor theory predicts a clear bottom-to-top effect. We designed three experiments to investigate this issue. First, we found a left-to-right ordinal position effect, replicating results obtained in Western populations. However we observed a vertical ordinal position effect in a bottom-to-top direction, which was itself modulated by (left / right) hand positions. We suggest that order-space interactions are a case of metaphoric comprehension, which itself may ground cognitive processing.

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Nonhuman sequence learning findings argue against Hoerl and McCormack's two systems of temporal cognition

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x1900044x ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 42 ◽

Author(s):

Benjamin J. De Corte ◽

Edward A. Wasserman

Keyword(s):

Sequence Learning ◽

Past Research ◽

Ordinal Position ◽

Temporal Cognition ◽

Two Systems

Abstract Hoerl & McCormack propose that animals learn sequences through an entrainment-like process, rather than tracking the temporal addresses of each event in a given sequence. However, past research suggests that animals form “temporal maps” of sequential events and also comprehend the concept of ordinal position. These findings suggest that a clarification or qualification of the authors’ hypothesis is needed.

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