In two experiments we investigated mapping of numerical and physical magnitudes with temporal order. Pairs of digits were presented sequentially for a size comparison task. An advantage for numbers presented in ascending order was found when participants were comparing the numbers' physical and numerical magnitudes. The effect was more robust for comparisons of physical size, as it was found using both select larger and select smaller instructions, while for numerical comparisons it was found only for select larger instructions. Varying both the digits' numerical and physical sizes resulted in a size congruity effect, indicating automatic processing of the irrelevant magnitude dimension. Temporal order and the congruency between numerical and physical magnitudes affected comparisons in an additive manner, thus suggesting that they affect different stages of the comparison process.
Past research has shown that performance in ordinal magnitude tasks is enhanced when stimuli are presented in ascending order, suggesting that magnitude is mapped to temporal order, with small magnitude associated with early and large with late presentation. The present study addresses the automaticity of this effect and its limitations. We used the "same/different" task for numbers (Experiment 1) and physical sizes of shapes (Experiment 2) as well as identity of shapes (Experiment 3). The advantage for stimuli in ascending order was found for both numbers and physical sizes of shapes. However, it was limited to specific conditions - when magnitude processing was required for the task and when a "different" response was mapped to the right hand side. Thus, it seems that the automatic mapping of magnitude to temporal order is dependent on the mapping of magnitude to space.
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