Abstract
The study has two objectives: (1) to introduce grip force recording as a new technique for studying embodied numerical processing; and (2) to demonstrate how three competing accounts of numerical magnitude representation can be tested by using this new technique: the Mental Number Line (MNL), A Theory of Magnitude (ATOM) and Embodied Cognition (finger counting-based) account. While 26 healthy adults processed visually presented single digits in a go/no-go n-back paradigm, their passive holding forces for two small sensors were recorded in both hands. Spontaneous and unconscious grip force changes related to number magnitude occurred in the left hand already 100–140 ms after stimulus presentation and continued systematically. Our results support a two-step model of number processing where an initial stage is related to the automatic activation of all stimulus properties whereas a later stage consists of deeper conscious processing of the stimulus. This interpretation generalizes previous work with linguistic stimuli and elaborates the timeline of embodied cognition. We hope that the use of grip force recording will advance the field of numerical cognition research.
Highlights
People use numbers to represent magnitudes, operate, and communicate quantitative information (Dehaene, 1992; Núñez, 2017)
The goal of the present study was to examine spontaneous grip force fluctuations to study the continuous activations of magnitude concepts in an attempt to clarify the contributions of A Theory of Magnitude (ATOM), Mental Number Line (MNL), and embodied representations of number knowledge
The mean correlation of force between both hands was calculated for each participant and Fisher z-transformation6 was applied to correlation coefficients to normalize their distribution
Summary
People use numbers to represent magnitudes, operate, and communicate quantitative information (Dehaene, 1992; Núñez, 2017). One hypothesis about magnitude knowledge is A Theory of Magnitude (ATOM), which suggests a shared cortical mechanism for time, space, and all other quantities (Walsh, 2003, 2015). Another hypothesis is a Mental Number Line (MNL), suggesting grounding of magnitude knowledge in spatial experience with smaller numbers being represented on the left side and larger numbers on the right side of a magnitudeordered number sequence in our mind. We review the evidence for each of these three hypotheses about the cognitive representation of number knowledge in more detail to motivate specific predictions for performance in our study and demonstrate how a novel technique—grip force recording—can be used for testing each of those theoretical accounts
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