Random walks on the mental number line

The direction of influence between conceptual and motor activation, and its relevance for real-life activities, is still unclear. Here, we use the frequently reported association between small/large numbers and left/right space to investigate this issue during walking. We asked healthy adults to generate random numbers as they made lateral turns and found that (1) lateral turn decisions are predicted by the last few numbers generated prior to turning; (2) the intention to turn left/right makes small/large numbers more accessible; and (3) magnitude but not order of auditorily presented numbers influences the listener's turn selection. Our findings document a bidirectional influence between conceptual and motor activation and point to a hierarchically organized conceptual-motor activation.