Abstract
AbstractWith this study we provide evidence that the cognitive processes involved in addition/subtraction, mapped along the mental number line, seem to mediate our understanding of trading verbs. When left-to-right culture participants read "loss" verbs, cognitive activation moves "leftward" as in arithmetical subtraction, while reading "gain" verbs activates a mental rightward space as in addition.We test this hypothesis by asking to a group of participants to use their left and right hand in judging (as correct of not) the syntactic form of several verbs meaning financial outcomes. Results show that processing “gain verbs” was associated with shorter latencies when responding with the right hand similarly when performing an addition task, while processing “loss verbs” was associated with shorter latencies when responding with the left, similarly when performing a subtraction task. This finding suggests that understanding language denoting economics outcomes covertly engages the arithmetical system in a spatially left-right dimension.
Highlights
Researches investigating the nature of cognitive processes engaged in mentally representing economical outcomes are growing
Since one of the basal assumptions of this model sustains that accounting operations are engaged in evaluating economical outcomes, one could hypothesize a specific role of the arithmetic brain processes in understanding financial meaning and their verbal communication
Given the direct relation between arithmetic operations and spatial coordinates, as effect of the mental number line (MNL) displacement, we expected processing “gain verbs” would be associated with shorter latencies when responding with the right hand when performing an addition task, while “loss verbs” would be associated with shorter latencies when responding with the left, when performing a subtraction task
Summary
Researches investigating the nature of cognitive processes engaged in mentally representing economical outcomes are growing. Since one of the basal assumptions of this model sustains that accounting operations are engaged in evaluating economical outcomes, one could hypothesize a specific role of the arithmetic brain processes in understanding financial meaning and their verbal communication. According to this assumption, “Gain” and “loss” verbs could be conceptualized as results of two mental accounting operations such as “addition” and “subtraction”. People could metaphorically represent gain outcomes as one improving of their economical wealth while loss outcomes as reduction of their economical wealth It was been well documented in behavioural and brain literature the direct link between numbers, arithmetic operations, such as addition and subtraction, and left-to-right vectorial space. Given the direct relation between arithmetic operations (addition vs. subtraction) and spatial coordinates (left vs. right), as effect of the MNL displacement, we expected processing “gain verbs” would be associated with shorter latencies when responding with the right hand when performing an addition task, while “loss verbs” would be associated with shorter latencies when responding with the left, when performing a subtraction task
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