Abstract
In a spatial attention paradigm, Fischer et al. (2003) showed that merely perceiving a number shifted attention according to the magnitude of the number. Low numbers shifted attention to the left and high numbers shifted attention to the right. This suggests that numbers are represented by the mental number line – a spatial image schema that is ordered from left to right with increasing magnitude. In six experiments, we used the spatial attention paradigm of Fischer et al. (2003) to investigate if and when such mental representations are activated. Participants detected visual targets that were preceded by low and high numbers. Between experiments we manipulated how participants processed the number. Participants either merely perceived the number, as in the experiments by Fischer et al. (2003) processed the number’s parity, or processed the number’s magnitude. Our results provide little support for the idea that numbers shift spatial attention. Only in one of the two experiments in which participants processed number magnitude did participants respond faster to targets in congruent locations (left for low magnitudes and right for high magnitudes) than in incongruent locations. In the other five experiments number magnitude did not affect spatial attention. This shows, in contrast to Fischer et al.’s (2003) results, that the mental number line is not activated automatically but at best only when it is contextually relevant. Furthermore, these results suggest that image schemas in general may be context-dependent rather than fundamental to mental concepts.
Highlights
NUMBER-INDUCED SHIFTS IN SPATIAL ATTENTION: THE NECESSITY OF MAGNITUDE INFORMATION Dehaene et al (1990, 1993) demonstrated that low numbers are associated with faster left side responses and high numbers are associated with faster right side responses, an effect known as the spatial–numerical association of response codes (SNARCs)
Even when participants processed the number in a parity judgment task, there was no effect on spatial attention
We investigated whether activation of the mental number line and subsequent direction of spatial attention in an image schema congruent manner was modulated by the relevance of magnitude information
Summary
NUMBER-INDUCED SHIFTS IN SPATIAL ATTENTION: THE NECESSITY OF MAGNITUDE INFORMATION Dehaene et al (1990, 1993) demonstrated that low numbers are associated with faster left side responses and high numbers are associated with faster right side responses, an effect known as the spatial–numerical association of response codes (SNARCs) These findings suggest that whenever a number is perceived an internal spatial representation of magnitude is automatically activated, in the form of a horizontally oriented mental number line, with increasing magnitude from left to right. Fischer et al (2003) showed that participants were faster to detect a target on the left side of the visual field after perceiving a low number than a high number, and faster to detect a target on the right side of the visual field after perceiving a high number than a low number Based on these results Fischer et al (2003) claimed that mere observation of numbers automatically activates spatial representations associated with number meaning, which in turn influences the allocation of attention in the visual field. According to the conceptual metaphor theory, image schemas are fundamental for the representation of abstract concepts
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