Verbal interference suppresses exact numerical representation
Language for number is an important case study of the relationship between language and cognition because the mechanisms of non-verbal numerical cognition are well-understood. When the Pirahã (an Amazonian hunter-gatherer tribe who have no exact number words) are tested in non-verbal numerical tasks...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Elsevier
2016
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102467 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2377-1791 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3823-514X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5912-883X |
| _version_ | 1826188987477262336 |
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| author | Frank, Michael C. Fedorenko, Evelina Lai, Peter Saxe, Rebecca R. Gibson, Edward A. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Frank, Michael C. Fedorenko, Evelina Lai, Peter Saxe, Rebecca R. Gibson, Edward A. |
| author_sort | Frank, Michael C. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Language for number is an important case study of the relationship between language and cognition because the mechanisms of non-verbal numerical cognition are well-understood. When the Pirahã (an Amazonian hunter-gatherer tribe who have no exact number words) are tested in non-verbal numerical tasks, they are able to perform one-to-one matching tasks but make errors in more difficult tasks. Their pattern of errors suggests that they are using analog magnitude estimation, an evolutionarily- and developmentally-conserved mechanism for estimating quantities. Here we show that English-speaking participants rely on the same mechanisms when verbal number representations are unavailable due to verbal interference. Followup experiments demonstrate that the effects of verbal interference are primarily manifest during encoding of quantity information, and—using a new procedure for matching difficulty of interference tasks for individual participants—that the effects are restricted to verbal interference. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that number words are used online to encode, store, and manipulate numerical information. This linguistic strategy complements, rather than altering or replacing, non-verbal representations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:08:05Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/102467 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:08:05Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1024672022-09-30T07:46:59Z Verbal interference suppresses exact numerical representation Frank, Michael C. Fedorenko, Evelina Lai, Peter Saxe, Rebecca R. Gibson, Edward A. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Gibson, Edward A. Fedorenko, Evelina Lai, Peter Saxe, Rebecca R. Gibson, Edward A. Language for number is an important case study of the relationship between language and cognition because the mechanisms of non-verbal numerical cognition are well-understood. When the Pirahã (an Amazonian hunter-gatherer tribe who have no exact number words) are tested in non-verbal numerical tasks, they are able to perform one-to-one matching tasks but make errors in more difficult tasks. Their pattern of errors suggests that they are using analog magnitude estimation, an evolutionarily- and developmentally-conserved mechanism for estimating quantities. Here we show that English-speaking participants rely on the same mechanisms when verbal number representations are unavailable due to verbal interference. Followup experiments demonstrate that the effects of verbal interference are primarily manifest during encoding of quantity information, and—using a new procedure for matching difficulty of interference tasks for individual participants—that the effects are restricted to verbal interference. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that number words are used online to encode, store, and manipulate numerical information. This linguistic strategy complements, rather than altering or replacing, non-verbal representations. 2016-05-12T14:37:50Z 2016-05-12T14:37:50Z 2011-11 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 00100285 1095-5623 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102467 Frank, Michael C., Evelina Fedorenko, Peter Lai, Rebecca Saxe, and Edward Gibson. “Verbal Interference Suppresses Exact Numerical Representation.” Cognitive Psychology 64, no. 1–2 (February 2012): 74–92. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2377-1791 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3823-514X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5912-883X en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2011.10.004 Cognitive Psychology Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ application/pdf Elsevier Prof. Gibson |
| spellingShingle | Frank, Michael C. Fedorenko, Evelina Lai, Peter Saxe, Rebecca R. Gibson, Edward A. Verbal interference suppresses exact numerical representation |
| title | Verbal interference suppresses exact numerical representation |
| title_full | Verbal interference suppresses exact numerical representation |
| title_fullStr | Verbal interference suppresses exact numerical representation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Verbal interference suppresses exact numerical representation |
| title_short | Verbal interference suppresses exact numerical representation |
| title_sort | verbal interference suppresses exact numerical representation |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102467 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2377-1791 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3823-514X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5912-883X |
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