How to trigger and keep stable directional Space–Number Associations (SNAs)

Pinto, Mario; Pellegrino, Michele; Marson, Fabio; Lasaponara, Stefano; Cestari, Vincenzo; D'Onofrio, Marianna; Doricchi, Fabrizio

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2020.10.020

Cited by 21 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…with no visual-spatial cues suggesting their left-to-right arrangement (Rotondaro et al 2015 ). The result of a recent study (Pinto et al 2021a , b ) in right brain-damaged patients with left spatial neglect (Bartolomeo et al 2007 ; Doricchi et al 2008 ; Lecce et al 2015 ; Silvetti et al 2016 ) reinforces the idea that the use of left/right spatial response codes is crucial in triggering the SNA. This study shows that in a Magnitude Comparison SNARC that requires the use of contrasting left/right spatial codes for the selection of one out of two lateral motor responses, patients with neglect are significantly slower at deciding that the number “4” is smaller than the number “5” than deciding that the number “6” is larger than the number “5”.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…Recent studies in healthy humans have provided support to the idea that rather than being native, the directional left-to-right or right-to-left organization of MNLs is triggered by the use of left/right codes in the numerical task at hand (Fattorini et al 2015 , 2016 ; Pinto et al 2018 , 2019b ). These studies show that reliable horizontal MNLs are evoked only when left/right spatial codes are contrasted to select one out of two spatially defined and competing motor responses, like in the SNARC task (Fattorini et al 2015 , 2016 ; Pinto et al 2018 , 2019b ), or to release or uphold a non-spatially defined response like in Go/No-Go task (Fischer and Shaki 2017 ; Shaki and Fischer 2018 ; Pinto et al 2019a , 2021a ). In line with these conclusions, it is worth noting that healthy humans display similar lateral biases in the bisection of horizontal visual lines (Longo and Laurenco 2007 ) and in the mental bisection of number intervals, when these intervals are defined by placing their endpoints one to the left and one to the right side of a visual horizontal line: nonetheless this correlation entirely disappears when the endpoints of number intervals are defined verbally, i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nonetheless, the same patients show no “4” vs “6” RTs asymmetry when the same Magnitude Comparison task is performed in a Go/No-Go procedure that requires pressing or upholding a central response button without requiring the left/right spatial response codes. This finding suggests that the directional left-to-right representation of number magnitudes is evoked by the very use of left/right spatial codes and that the SNARC effect does not derive from a primary congruency or incongruence between the independent spatial representation of numbers and spatial-response codes, but that it is rather secondary to the transfer of spatial response codes to the representation of number magnitudes that, otherwise, would not be endowed with an inherent spatial component (Aiello et al 2012 , 2013 ; Fattorini et al 2015 ; Pinto et al 2018 , 2019a , b , 2021a , b ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Over the years, this interpretation has been supplemented and qualified by other proposals (for review of this issue, see Kadosh et al 2008 ; Wood et al 2008 ; Fattorini et al 2016 ; Pinto et al 2019a , b , 2021a ). These have emphasised the role played by specific factors in the genesis of the SNARC, like the influence of culturally acquired conceptual polarities that would include congruent concepts like “small” and “left” rather than incongruent ones like “small” and “right” (Proctor and Cho 2006 ; Gevers et al 2010 ) and the fact that the SNARC arises at the response-selection level (Keus et al 2005 ; Gevers et al 2006 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Perceiving numerosity does not cause automatic shifts of spatial attention

et al. 2021

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It is debated whether the representation of numbers is endowed with a directional-spatial component so that perceiving small-magnitude numbers triggers leftward shifts of attention and perceiving large-magnitude numbers rightward shifts. Contrary to initial findings, recent investigations have demonstrated that centrally presented small-magnitude and large-magnitude Arabic numbers do not cause leftward and rightward shifts of attention, respectively. Here we verified whether perceiving small or large non-symbolic numerosities (i.e., clouds of dots) drives attention to the left or the right side of space, respectively. In experiment 1, participants were presented with central small (1, 2) vs large-numerosity (8, 9) clouds of dots followed by an imperative target in the left or right side of space. In experiment 2, a central cloud of dots (i.e., five dots) was followed by the simultaneous presentation of two identical dot-clouds, one on the left and one on the right side of space. Lateral clouds were both lower (1, 2) or higher in numerosity (8, 9) than the central cloud. After a variable delay, one of the two lateral clouds turned red and participants had to signal the colour change through a unimanual response. We found that (a) in Experiment 1, the small vs large numerosity of the central cloud of dots did not speed up the detection of left vs right targets, respectively, (b) in Experiment 2, the detection of colour change was not faster in the left side of space when lateral clouds were smaller in numerosity than the central reference and in the right side when clouds were larger in numerosity. These findings show that perceiving non-symbolic numerosity does not cause automatic shifts of spatial attention and suggests no inherent association between the representation of numerosity and that of directional space.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Perceiving numerosity does not cause automatic shifts of spatial attention

et al. 2021

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“…We must explicitly activate at least one of the two components of that associationeither the spatial-directional or the magnitude componentto associate numbers with space. Pinto, Pellegrino, Marson, et al (2019a) extended this insight based on their own independent hypotheses (previously advanced in Aiello et al, 2012;Fattorini et al, 2015;and Pinto et al, 2018; see also Pinto, Pellegrino, Lasaponara, et al, 2019b;Pinto et al, 2021), and clarified that both space and magnitude must be used in conjunction to trigger SNAs. Activating a single task component alone (e.g., magnitude, by instructing participants to "respond for numbers < 5, or for all arrows") was not sufficient to generate SNAs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Number to me, space to you: Joint representation of spatial-numerical associations

et al. 2021

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Recent work has shown that number concepts activate both spatial and magnitude representations. According to the social co-representation literature which has shown that participants typically represent task components assigned to others together with their own, we asked whether explicit magnitude meaning and explicit spatial coding must be present in a single mind, or can be distributed across two minds, to generate a spatial-numerical congruency effect. In a shared go/no-go task that eliminated peripheral spatial codes, we assigned explicit magnitude processing to participants and spatial processing to either human or non-human co-agents. The spatial-numerical congruency effect emerged only with human co-agents. We demonstrate an inter-personal level of conceptual congruency between space and number that arises from a shared conceptual representation not contaminated by peripheral spatial codes. Theoretical implications of this finding for numerical cognition are discussed.

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