Hemispheric asymmetry and the mental number line: Comparison of double-digit numbers

Michal Lavidor; Victoria Brinksman; Silke M. Göbel

doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2004.05.003

Hemispheric asymmetry and the mental number line: Comparison of double-digit numbers

Michal Lavidor, Victoria Brinksman, Silke M. Göbel

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

To investigate the spatial representation of numbers and its possible hemispheric organisation, 46 participants were presented with a series of double-digit numbers in a fixed standard number comparison task using 65 (in Experiment 1) and 55 (in Experiment 2) as the standard. Visual field of presentation, distance from the target number and magnitude were manipulated. Reaction times decreased with increasing distance from the target number, in line with the well-established distance effect. There was no main effect of visual field, however the interaction between visual field, distance and magnitude was significant. For large distances, numbers of small magnitude were responded to faster in the left over the right visual field, while there was a right visual field advantage for large magnitude numbers. These results suggest that the representation of numbers has spatial qualities (i.e., smaller numbers are represented to the left of a comparison point, larger numbers to the right).

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1927-1933
Number of pages	7
Journal	Neuropsychologia
Volume	42
Issue number	14
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2004.05.003
State	Published - 2004
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
ML was supported by the Royal Society, the Wellcome equipment grant and the BBSRC. SG is a Junior Research Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford, and was supported by the German Exchange Service (DAAD: HSPIII) and the German Scholarship Foundation.

Funding

ML was supported by the Royal Society, the Wellcome equipment grant and the BBSRC. SG is a Junior Research Fellow at Jesus College, Oxford, and was supported by the German Exchange Service (DAAD: HSPIII) and the German Scholarship Foundation.

Funders	Funder number
German Scholarship Foundation
Wellcome Trust
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Royal Society
German Academic Exchange Service London
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst

Keywords

Distance effect
Divided visual fields
Magnitude effect
Mental number line

Access to Document

10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2004.05.003

Cite this

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title = "Hemispheric asymmetry and the mental number line: Comparison of double-digit numbers",

abstract = "To investigate the spatial representation of numbers and its possible hemispheric organisation, 46 participants were presented with a series of double-digit numbers in a fixed standard number comparison task using 65 (in Experiment 1) and 55 (in Experiment 2) as the standard. Visual field of presentation, distance from the target number and magnitude were manipulated. Reaction times decreased with increasing distance from the target number, in line with the well-established distance effect. There was no main effect of visual field, however the interaction between visual field, distance and magnitude was significant. For large distances, numbers of small magnitude were responded to faster in the left over the right visual field, while there was a right visual field advantage for large magnitude numbers. These results suggest that the representation of numbers has spatial qualities (i.e., smaller numbers are represented to the left of a comparison point, larger numbers to the right).",

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AU - Brinksman, Victoria

AU - Göbel, Silke M.

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N2 - To investigate the spatial representation of numbers and its possible hemispheric organisation, 46 participants were presented with a series of double-digit numbers in a fixed standard number comparison task using 65 (in Experiment 1) and 55 (in Experiment 2) as the standard. Visual field of presentation, distance from the target number and magnitude were manipulated. Reaction times decreased with increasing distance from the target number, in line with the well-established distance effect. There was no main effect of visual field, however the interaction between visual field, distance and magnitude was significant. For large distances, numbers of small magnitude were responded to faster in the left over the right visual field, while there was a right visual field advantage for large magnitude numbers. These results suggest that the representation of numbers has spatial qualities (i.e., smaller numbers are represented to the left of a comparison point, larger numbers to the right).

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KW - Magnitude effect

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Hemispheric asymmetry and the mental number line: Comparison of double-digit numbers

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

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