Mental movements without magnitude? A study of spatial biases in symbolic arithmetic

Michal Pinhas; Martin H. Fischer

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2008.09.003

Mental movements without magnitude? A study of spatial biases in symbolic arithmetic

Michal Pinhas, Martin H. Fischer

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

146 Scopus citations

Abstract

McCrink (McCrink, Dehaene, & Dehaene-Lambertz (2007). Moving along the number line: Operational momentum in nonsymbolic arithmetic. Perception and Psychophysics, 69(8), 1324-1333) documented an "Operational Momentum" (OM) effect - overestimation of addition and underestimation of subtraction outcomes in non-symbolic (dot pattern) arithmetic. We investigated whether OM also occurs with Arabic number symbols. Participants pointed to number locations (1-9) on a visually given number line after computing them from addition or subtraction problems. Pointing was biased leftward after subtracting and rightward after adding, especially when the second operand was zero. The findings generalize OM to the spatial domain and to symbolic number processing. Alternative interpretations of our results are discussed.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	408-415
Number of pages	8
Journal	Cognition
Volume	109
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2008.09.003
State	Published - Dec 2008
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

Mental arithmetic
Mental number line
Operational momentum
Pointing
SNARC effect
Zero problems

Access to Document

10.1016/j.cognition.2008.09.003

Cite this

@article{fb054deb5af646beab0a8ed2fa45f773,

title = "Mental movements without magnitude? A study of spatial biases in symbolic arithmetic",

abstract = "McCrink (McCrink, Dehaene, & Dehaene-Lambertz (2007). Moving along the number line: Operational momentum in nonsymbolic arithmetic. Perception and Psychophysics, 69(8), 1324-1333) documented an {"}Operational Momentum{"} (OM) effect - overestimation of addition and underestimation of subtraction outcomes in non-symbolic (dot pattern) arithmetic. We investigated whether OM also occurs with Arabic number symbols. Participants pointed to number locations (1-9) on a visually given number line after computing them from addition or subtraction problems. Pointing was biased leftward after subtracting and rightward after adding, especially when the second operand was zero. The findings generalize OM to the spatial domain and to symbolic number processing. Alternative interpretations of our results are discussed.",

keywords = "Mental arithmetic, Mental number line, Operational momentum, Pointing, SNARC effect, Zero problems",

author = "Michal Pinhas and Fischer, {Martin H.}",

note = "Funding Information: MHF was supported by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (Project Number ECRP-RES-000-23-1388) and by British Academy Grant SG 46947. ",

year = "2008",

month = dec,

doi = "10.1016/j.cognition.2008.09.003",

language = "אנגלית",

volume = "109",

pages = "408--415",

journal = "Cognition",

issn = "0010-0277",

publisher = "Elsevier B.V.",

number = "3",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Mental movements without magnitude? A study of spatial biases in symbolic arithmetic

AU - Pinhas, Michal

AU - Fischer, Martin H.

N1 - Funding Information: MHF was supported by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (Project Number ECRP-RES-000-23-1388) and by British Academy Grant SG 46947.

PY - 2008/12

Y1 - 2008/12

N2 - McCrink (McCrink, Dehaene, & Dehaene-Lambertz (2007). Moving along the number line: Operational momentum in nonsymbolic arithmetic. Perception and Psychophysics, 69(8), 1324-1333) documented an "Operational Momentum" (OM) effect - overestimation of addition and underestimation of subtraction outcomes in non-symbolic (dot pattern) arithmetic. We investigated whether OM also occurs with Arabic number symbols. Participants pointed to number locations (1-9) on a visually given number line after computing them from addition or subtraction problems. Pointing was biased leftward after subtracting and rightward after adding, especially when the second operand was zero. The findings generalize OM to the spatial domain and to symbolic number processing. Alternative interpretations of our results are discussed.

AB - McCrink (McCrink, Dehaene, & Dehaene-Lambertz (2007). Moving along the number line: Operational momentum in nonsymbolic arithmetic. Perception and Psychophysics, 69(8), 1324-1333) documented an "Operational Momentum" (OM) effect - overestimation of addition and underestimation of subtraction outcomes in non-symbolic (dot pattern) arithmetic. We investigated whether OM also occurs with Arabic number symbols. Participants pointed to number locations (1-9) on a visually given number line after computing them from addition or subtraction problems. Pointing was biased leftward after subtracting and rightward after adding, especially when the second operand was zero. The findings generalize OM to the spatial domain and to symbolic number processing. Alternative interpretations of our results are discussed.

KW - Mental arithmetic

KW - Mental number line

KW - Operational momentum

KW - Pointing

KW - SNARC effect

KW - Zero problems

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=56349160597&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.cognition.2008.09.003

DO - 10.1016/j.cognition.2008.09.003

M3 - ???researchoutput.researchoutputtypes.contributiontojournal.article???

C2 - 18976986

AN - SCOPUS:56349160597

SN - 0010-0277

VL - 109

SP - 408

EP - 415

JO - Cognition

JF - Cognition

IS - 3

ER -

Mental movements without magnitude? A study of spatial biases in symbolic arithmetic

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this