Minds without language represent number through space: Origins of the mental number line

Frontiers in Psychology

Volumn 3, Issue OCT, 2012, Pages

  de Hevia, Maria Dolores ^a,b   Girelli, Luisa ^c   Cassia, Viola Macchi ^c  

^a UNIVERSITÉ PARIS DESCARTES   (France)

^b INSERM U992 ^*  (France)

^c UNIVERSITY OF MILANO BICOCCA   (Italy)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84870953534     PISSN: None     EISSN: 16641078     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00466     Document Type: Article

References (49)

1. Bächtold, D., Baumüller, M., and Brugger, P. (1998). Stimulus-response compatibility in representational space. Neuropsychologia 36, 731-735.
2. Berch, D.B., Foley, E.J., Hill, R.J., and Ryan, P. M. (1999). Extracting parity and magnitude from Arabic numerals: developmental changes in number processing and mental representation. J. Exp. Child Psychol. 74, 286-308.
3. Bisiach, E., and Luzzatti, C. (1978). Unilateral neglect of representational space. Cortex 14, 129-133.
4. Cohen Kadosh, R., Cohen Kadosh, K., and Henik, A. (2008). When brightness counts: the neuronal correlate of numerical-luminance interference. Cereb. Cortex 18, 337-343.
5. Dadda, M., Zandonà, E., Agrillo, C., and Bisazza, A. (2009). The costs of hemispheric specialization in a fish. Proc. R. Soc. B Biol. Sci. 276, 4399-4407.
6. Dehaene, S. (1992). Varieties of numerical abilities. Cognition 44, 1-42.
7. Dehaene, S., Bossini, S., and Giraux, P. (1993). The mental representation of parity and number magnitude. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 122, 371-396.
8. Dehaene, S., Izard, V., Spelke, E. S., and Pica, P. (2008). Log or linear? Distinct intuitions of the number scale in Western and Amazonian indigene cultures. Science 320, 1217-1220.
9. Dehaene, S., Piazza, M., Pinel, P., and Cohen, L. (2003). Three parietal circuits of number processing. Cogn. Neuropsychol. 20, 487-506.
10. de Hevia, M. D., Girelli, L., Bricolo, E., and Vallar, G. (2008). The representational space of numerical magnitude: illusions of length. Q. J. Exp. Psychol. 61, 1496-1514.
11. de Hevia, M. D., Girelli, L., and Vallar, G. (2006). Numbers and space: a cognitive illusion? Exp. Brain Res. 168, 254-264.
12. de Hevia, M. D., and Spelke, E. S. (2009). Spontaneous mapping of number and space in adults and young children. Cognition 110, 198-207.
13. de Hevia, M. D., and Spelke, E. S. (2010). Numberspace mapping in human infants. Psychol. Sci. 21, 653-660.
14. de Hevia, M. D., Vanderslice, M., and Spelke, E. S. (2012). Cross-dimensinal mapping of number, length and brightness by preschool children. PLoS ONE 7:e35530. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone. 0035530
15. Fias, W., Brysbaert, M., Geypens, F., and d'Ydewalle, G. (1996). The importance of magnitude information in numerical processing: evidence from the SNARC effect. Math. Cogn. 2, 95-110.
16. Fias, W., Lammertyn, J., Reynvoet, B., Dupont, P., and Orban, G. A. (2003). Parietal representation of symbolic and non-symbolic magnitude. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 15, 47-56.
17. Fischer, M. H. (2001). Number processing induces spatial performance biases. Neurology 57, 822-826.
18. Fischer, M. H. (2006). The future for SNARC could be stark. Cortex 42, 1066-1068.
19. Fischer, M. H., Castel, A. D., Dodd, M. D., and Pratt, J. (2003). Perceiving numbers causes spatial shifts of attention. Nat. Neurosci. 6, 555-556.
20. Galton, F. (1880). Visualised numerals. Nature 21, 252-256.
21. Gevers, W., Reynvoet, B., and Fias, W. (2003). The mental representation of ordinal sequences is spatially organized. Cognition 87, B87-B95.
22. Girelli, L., Lucangeli, D., and Butterworth, B. (2000). The development of automaticity in accessing number magnitude. J. Exp. Child Psychol. 76, 104-122.
23. Girelli, L., Perrone, G., Pisacane, A., and Macchi Cassia, V. M. (2009). "The influence of number and magnitude information on space representation in children," in PaperPresentedattheSRCD, (Denver, CO).
24. Haith, M. M. (1980). RulesthatBabiesLookby:the Organization of Newborn Visual Activity. Potomac: LEA.
25. Lourenco, S. F., and Longo, M. R. (2010). General magnitude representation in human infants. Psychol. Sci. 21, 873-881.
26. Macchi Cassia, V. M., Picozzi, M., Girelli, L., and de Hevia, M. D. (2012). Increasing magnitude counts more: asymmetrical processing of ordinality in 4-month-old infants. Cognition 124, 183-193.
27. McCrink, K., Birdsdall, W., and Caldera, C. (2011). "Parental transmission of left-to-right structure in early childhood," in PaperPresentedatthe Cognitive Development Society, (Philadelphia, PA).
28. Opfer, J.E., Thompson, C.A., and Furlong, E. E. (2010). Early development of spatial-numeric associations: evidence from spatial and quantitative performance of preschoolers. Dev. Sci. 13, 761-771.
29. Patro, K., and Haman, M. (2012). The spatialnumerical congruity effect in preschoolers. J. Exp. Child Psychol. 111, 534-542.
30. Pinel, P., Piazza, M., Le Bihan, D., and Dehaene, S. (2004). Distributed and overlapping cerebral representations of number, size, and luminance during comparative judgments. Neuron 41, 983-993.
31. Previtali, P., de Hevia, M. D., and Girelli, L. (2010). Placing order in space: the SNARC effect in serial learning. Exp. Brain Res. 201, 599-605.
32. Ranzini, M., and Girelli, L. (2012). Exploiting illusory effects to disclose similarities in numerical and luminance processing. Atten. Percept. Psychophys. 74, 1001-1008.
33. Restle, F. (1970). Speed of adding and comparing numbers. J. Exp. Psychol. 83, 274-278.
34. Rosen, G. D., Galaburda, A. M., and Sherman, G. F. (1987). "Mechanisms of brain asymmetry: new evidence and hypotheses," in Duality and Unity of the Brain, ed D. Ottoson (New York, NY: Plenum Press), 29-36.
35. Rugani, R., Kelly, D. M., Szelest, I., Regolin, L., and Vallortigara, G. (2010). Is it only humans that count from left to right? Biol. Lett. 6, 290-292.
36. Rusconi, E., Kwan, B., Giordano, B., Umilta', C., and Butterworth, B. (2006). Spatial representation of pitch height: the SMARC effect. Cognition 99, 113-129.
37. Santiago, J., Lupiáñez, J., Pérez, E., and Funes, M. J. (2007). Time (also) flies from left to right. Psychon. Bull. Rev. 14, 512-516.
38. Shaki, S., and Fischer, M. H. (2008). Reading space into numbers a cross-linguistic comparison of the SNARC effect. Cognition 108, 590-599.
39. Shaki, S., Fischer, M. H., and Petrusic, W. M. (2009). Reading habits for both words and numbers contribute to the SNARC effect. Psychon. Bull. Rev. 16, 328-331.
40. Siegler, R. S., and Opfer, J. E. (2003). The development of numerical estimation: evidence for multiple representations of numerical quantity. Psychol. Sci. 14, 237-243.
41. Stevens, S. S. (1970). Neural events and the psychophysical law. Science 170, 1043-1050.
42. Stöttinger, E., Anderson, B., Danckert, J., Frühholz, B., and Wood, G. (2012). Spatial biases in number line bisection tasks are due to a cognitive illusion of length. Exp. Brain Res. 220, 147-152.
43. Tudusciuc, O., and Nieder, A. (2007). Neuronal population coding of continuous and discrete quantity in the primate posterior parietal cortex. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 104, 14513-14518.
44. Vallortigara, G., Regolin, L., Chiandetti, C., and Rugani, R. (2010). Rudiments of mind: insights through the chick model on number and space cognition in animals. Comp. Cogn. Behav. Rev. 5, 78-99.
45. van Dijck, J. P., and Fias, W. (2011). A working memory account for spatial-numerical associations. Cognition 119, 114-119.
46. van Galen, M. S., and Reitsma, P. (2008). Developing access to number magnitude: a study of the SNARC effect in 7to 9-year-olds. J. Exp. Child Psychol. 101, 99-113.
47. Vuilleumier, P., Ortigue, S., and Brugger, P. (2004). The number space and neglect. Cortex 40, 399-410.
48. Walsh, V. A. (2003). A theory of magnitude: common cortical metrics of time, space and quantity. Trends Cogn. Sci. 7, 483-488.
49. Zorzi, M., Priftis, K., and Umiltà, C. (2002). Brain damage: neglect disrupts the mental number line. Nature 417, 138-139.