The missing link: Global-local processing relates to number-magnitude processing in women.

Abstract

Number processing and visual hierarchical processing (global-local processing) have much in common. However, the shared aspects of number processing and global-local processing have not been investigated so far. Most visual stimuli are hierarchical with global structures made up of local parts. Processing of global and local aspects occurs in parallel and the global advantage effect indicates faster reactions to global than local aspects. Likewise, multidigit numbers can be represented holistically (whole number magnitudes) or in a decomposed fashion (single digit magnitudes). During comparison of 2-digit numbers, the unit-decade compatibility effect indicates slower responses when the larger number contains the smaller unit digit and has been suggested as a measure of how strongly participants rely on decomposed number representations. However, this interpretation of the compatibility effect is still controversial and a link between global-local processing and the individual tendency to rely on decomposed representations of multidigit numbers remains to be established. To that end we assessed whether the compatibility effect during number comparison was related to various measures of global advantage. To answer this question we drew upon existing data from participants who had completed both, the number comparison task and 2 global-local tasks. Results show that the compatibility effect is indeed negatively related to several measures of global advantage in women, with no evidence for such a relationship in men. These results demonstrate that global-local processing transcends into the numerical domain but also suggest that the compatibility effect reflects different mechanisms in men and women.

Eye-movements during number comparison: Associations to sex and sex hormones

“…However, it is also possible that in fact men do show less holistic processing during number comparison than women. Based on the fact that the compatibility effect relates to global-local processing only in women, we recently argued, that the compatibility effect may represent different cognitive mechanisms in men and women [ 47 ]. While the compatibility effect appears to reflect the likelihood of using decomposed over holistic number representations during number comparison in women, it is possible that in men it reflects the likelihood of using unit representations in addition to decade representations without referring to holistic number representations at all.…”

“…It has been demonstrated that participants tendency towards global or local processing relates to cognitive processing styles in various tasks including spatial tasks [ 4 , 47 , 48 ]. For instance during spatial navigation, women tend to use a more egocentric perspective and focus more strongly on landmarks, when they are more prone to a local/decom- posed processing style [ 48 ].…”

“…In fact, sex differences in spatial navigation strategies mediate sex differences in the compatibility effect [ 50 ]. Similarly, during number comparison tasks, women show a larger compatibility effect if they are more prone towards a local processing style [ 47 ]. In summary, this behavioral evidence suggests, that sex differences in the compatibility effect emerge, because women pay more attention to individual digits than men.…”

Transfer effects from language processing to visual attention dynamics: The impact of orthographic transparency

“…Indeed, the compositional‐local and holistic‐global continuum has also been proposed in several fields, such as number processing (e.g. Pletzer et al, 2021 ), syntactic processing (McClelland & Patterson, 2002 ; Pinker & Ullman, 2002 ) and creativity (Zmigrod et al, 2015 ), among others.…”