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When Numbers Get Heavy: Is the Mental Number Line Exclusively Numerical?

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  • Kevin J Holmes
  • Stella F Lourenco

Abstract

The mental number line, with its left-to-right orientation of increasing numerical values, is often regarded as evidence for a unique connection between space and number. Yet left-to-right orientation has been shown to extend to other dimensions, consistent with a general magnitude system wherein different magnitudes share neural and conceptual resources. Such observations raise a fundamental, yet relatively unexplored, question about spatial-numerical associations: What is the nature of the information represented along the mental number line? Here we show that this information is not exclusive to number, simultaneously accommodating numerical and non-numerical magnitudes. Participants completed the classic SNARC (Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes) task while sometimes wearing wrist weights. Weighting the left wrist–thereby linking less and more weight to right and left, respectively–worked against left-to-right orientation of number, leaving no behavioral trace of the mental number line. Our findings point to the dynamic integration of magnitude dimensions, with spatial organization instantiating representational currency (i.e., more/less relations) shared across magnitudes.

Suggested Citation

  • Kevin J Holmes & Stella F Lourenco, 2013. "When Numbers Get Heavy: Is the Mental Number Line Exclusively Numerical?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(3), pages 1-5, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0058381
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058381
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ping Ren & Michael E R Nicholls & Yuan-ye Ma & Lin Chen, 2011. "Size Matters: Non-Numerical Magnitude Affects the Spatial Coding of Response," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(8), pages 1-6, August.
    2. Carmelo Mario Vicario & Patrizia Pecoraro & Patrizia Turriziani & Giacomo Koch & Carlo Caltagirone & Massimiliano Oliveri, 2008. "Relativistic Compression and Expansion of Experiential Time in the Left and Right Space," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(3), pages 1-4, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Anna L Toscano-Zapién & Daniel Velázquez-López & David N Velázquez-Martínez, 2016. "Attentional Mechanisms during the Performance of a Subsecond Timing Task," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(7), pages 1-24, July.

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