Do numbers make us handy? Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for number-hand congruency effect
Finger counting facilitates numerical representations and mathematical processing. The current study investigated the association between finger counting habits and number processing by employing behavioral and electrophysiological measures. We explored whether small and large numerical primes influ...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2023-03-01
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| Series: | Acta Psychologica |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691823000173 |
| _version_ | 1811169490990268416 |
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| author | Saied Sabaghypour Hassan Sabouri Moghaddam Farhad Farkhondeh Tale Navi Mohammad Ali Nazari Mojtaba Soltanlou |
| author_facet | Saied Sabaghypour Hassan Sabouri Moghaddam Farhad Farkhondeh Tale Navi Mohammad Ali Nazari Mojtaba Soltanlou |
| author_sort | Saied Sabaghypour |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Finger counting facilitates numerical representations and mathematical processing. The current study investigated the association between finger counting habits and number processing by employing behavioral and electrophysiological measures. We explored whether small and large numerical primes influence the recognition of embodied target hand stimuli. Twenty-four right-handed participants that were grouped into right-starters (n = 13) and left-starters (n = 11) for finger counting performed a hand recognition task that consisted of numerical magnitudes as prime and hand recognition as targets. Based on the finger counting habits, congruent (i.e., left-starters: small number/left hand or large number/right hand; right-starters: small number/right hand or large number/left hand) and incongruent (i.e., left-starters: large number/left hand or small number/right hand; right-starters: large number/right hand or small number/left hand) conditions were presented to the participants. The participants were required to indicate whether the targets were left or right hand by simply pressing the left or the right key, respectively. Results indicated faster reaction times (RTs) for congruent as opposed to incongruent trials for all participants. The mean amplitude of the centro-parietal P300 component was significantly increased for the incongruent compared to congruent condition, indicating increased mental effort. Also, analysis of the latency of the P300 in terms of congruency effect in all participants revealed significant results. These combined results provide behavioral and electrophysiological evidence indicating the embodied nature of numbers. The results are interpreted in light of the general findings related to the P300 component. This research supports the association of number-hand representations and corroborates the idea of embodied numerosity. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T16:43:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7425dd50cb7c46b9ab867597f1469f5c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0001-6918 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T16:43:17Z |
| publishDate | 2023-03-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Acta Psychologica |
| spelling | doaj.art-7425dd50cb7c46b9ab867597f1469f5c2023-02-08T04:16:11ZengElsevierActa Psychologica0001-69182023-03-01233103841Do numbers make us handy? Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for number-hand congruency effectSaied Sabaghypour0Hassan Sabouri Moghaddam1Farhad Farkhondeh Tale Navi2Mohammad Ali Nazari3Mojtaba Soltanlou4Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran; Corresponding author.Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, IranDepartment of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, IranDepartment of Neuroscience, Faculty of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IranDepartment of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Education and Psychology, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran; School of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford, UKFinger counting facilitates numerical representations and mathematical processing. The current study investigated the association between finger counting habits and number processing by employing behavioral and electrophysiological measures. We explored whether small and large numerical primes influence the recognition of embodied target hand stimuli. Twenty-four right-handed participants that were grouped into right-starters (n = 13) and left-starters (n = 11) for finger counting performed a hand recognition task that consisted of numerical magnitudes as prime and hand recognition as targets. Based on the finger counting habits, congruent (i.e., left-starters: small number/left hand or large number/right hand; right-starters: small number/right hand or large number/left hand) and incongruent (i.e., left-starters: large number/left hand or small number/right hand; right-starters: large number/right hand or small number/left hand) conditions were presented to the participants. The participants were required to indicate whether the targets were left or right hand by simply pressing the left or the right key, respectively. Results indicated faster reaction times (RTs) for congruent as opposed to incongruent trials for all participants. The mean amplitude of the centro-parietal P300 component was significantly increased for the incongruent compared to congruent condition, indicating increased mental effort. Also, analysis of the latency of the P300 in terms of congruency effect in all participants revealed significant results. These combined results provide behavioral and electrophysiological evidence indicating the embodied nature of numbers. The results are interpreted in light of the general findings related to the P300 component. This research supports the association of number-hand representations and corroborates the idea of embodied numerosity.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691823000173Finger counting habitsNumerical processingHand recognitionCongruency effectEvent-related potentialsERP |
| spellingShingle | Saied Sabaghypour Hassan Sabouri Moghaddam Farhad Farkhondeh Tale Navi Mohammad Ali Nazari Mojtaba Soltanlou Do numbers make us handy? Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for number-hand congruency effect Acta Psychologica Finger counting habits Numerical processing Hand recognition Congruency effect Event-related potentials ERP |
| title | Do numbers make us handy? Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for number-hand congruency effect |
| title_full | Do numbers make us handy? Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for number-hand congruency effect |
| title_fullStr | Do numbers make us handy? Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for number-hand congruency effect |
| title_full_unstemmed | Do numbers make us handy? Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for number-hand congruency effect |
| title_short | Do numbers make us handy? Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for number-hand congruency effect |
| title_sort | do numbers make us handy behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for number hand congruency effect |
| topic | Finger counting habits Numerical processing Hand recognition Congruency effect Event-related potentials ERP |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691823000173 |
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