Are Arabic numerals processed as pictures in a Stroop interference task?

Abstract

In a picture-word interference task, picture naming is interfered by an incongruent word, but word naming is hardly hindered by the presence of an incongruent picture. In this study, we investigated whether Arabic digits are processed more like pictures or like words. We report two experiments in which Arabic digits and verbal numerals were confronted in a Stroop task. Arabic digit naming is interfered by the presence of an incongruent verbal numeral, while naming the verbal numeral is not in¯uenced by the presence of an incongruent Arabic digit. In a second experiment, we excluded the hypothesis that the results are due to ignoring the Arabic digits: interferences from an incongruent distracter were similar for both notations in a semantic classi®cation task. It seems that an asemantic conversion for Arabic digits is too slow to in¯uence naming times, and that Arabic digit naming, like picture naming, is semantically mediated.

Naming two-digit Arabic numerals: Evidence from masked priming studies.

“…Although Fias, Reynvoet, and Brysbaert (2001) checked the validity of their presentation mode by showing a Stroop interference effect from Arabic numerals on number words in a parity judgment task under exactly the same stimulus presentation conditions, in light of Roelof's findings this particular evidence against the existence of a nonsemantic route in number naming becomes very thin. In addition, masked priming studies in which primes and targets are presented at the same location have shown more or less equivalent priming effects of number words on the naming of digits as vice versa , even at SOAs as short as 43 ms (Reynvoet & Brysbaert, 2004).…”

Semantic processing of Arabic, Kanji, and Kana numbers: Evidence from interference in physical and numerical size judgments

“…In the indirect task, Kana numbers might be processed as visual objects (Algom, Dekel, & Pansky, 1996;Pansky & Algom, 2002). Otherwise, Kana numbers processing might end at the phonological level (Brysbaert, 2001;Fias, 2001;Fias, Reynvoet, & Brysbaert, 2001).…”

“…There is considerable evidence that semantic access of Kana words is mediated by the phonological representation, whereas Kanji words can access semantic representation directly (e.g., Yamada, 1998). Further, Fias et al (2001) demonstrated that Arabic number naming is semantically mediated, whereas written-word number (alphabetic number) naming is phonologically mediated. Therefore, the pathway with mediation of a phonological representation might be dominant for Kana numbers (i.e., visual number form-verbal word frame-analogue magnitude representation), whereas the direct pathway could be dominant for Arabic and Kanji numbers (i.e., visual number form-analogue magnitude representation).…”

“…Therefore, the pathway with mediation of a phonological representation might be dominant for Kana numbers (i.e., visual number form-verbal word frame-analogue magnitude representation), whereas the direct pathway could be dominant for Arabic and Kanji numbers (i.e., visual number form-analogue magnitude representation). Thus, as alphabetic numbers, Kana numbers might be translated up to a phonological representation in our indirect numerical task (Brysbaert, 2001;Fias, 2001;Fias et al, 2001).…”

Naming analog clocks conceptually facilitates naming digital clocks

“…Moreover, of the few studies that have been conducted, most have concentrated on the production of relatively simple numerals like those represented by 1-and 2-digit Arabic numerals (e.g., saying ''twenty'' in response to 20; cf. Brysbaert, 1995;Fias, Reynvoet, & Brysbaert, 2001). The production of complex numerical expressions like those involved in time telling (e.g., saying ''quarter to three'' in response to 2:45) has been almost completely ignored.…”