Speaker
Description
Many studies suggest that numerical abilities develop through sensorimotor interaction with the environment. In line with this view, it has been shown that repeated execution of grasping or pointing action impacted the performance in a subsequent number magnitude task. Specifically, the distance effect, a typical numerical effect consisting in faster response times when comparing farer (e.g., 1-5) rather than closer (e.g., 4-5) numbers, was enhanced after grasping and reduced after pointing. In this study, we confirm and extend previous findings by investigating the role of grasping and pointing in the processing of number magnitude and order. Thirty-seven participants executed hand actions followed by numerical trials. Specifically, they repeated either pointing or grasping, prior to execution of either magnitude comparison (e.g., “Is 4 larger than 5?") or order judgment (e.g., “Are 4 5 6 in order?”). An ANOVA was conducted for each task, with type of action, number magnitude, and number distance as within-subjects factors, and with task order and action order as between-subjects factors. We found that in magnitude comparison the distance effect disappeared after pointing, while the effect was preserved after grasping. In the order task, no difference between grasping and pointing conditions was observed; however, the factor action interacted with numerical distance, and with the order in which the actions were performed. Overall, these results confirm previous findings on the involvement of sensorimotor mechanisms in the processing of cardinal numbers. However, further investigations are needed to clarify the role of action mechanisms in the processing of ordinal numbers.
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