Can Implicit or Explicit Time Processing Impact Numerical Representation? Evidence From a Dual Task Paradigm

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Maria Grazia Di Bono¹  Caterina Dapor²  Simone Cutini³  Konstantinos Priftis¹ 

[1] Department of General Psychology, University of Padua;Department of Neuroscience, Biomedicine and Movement Sciences, University of Verona;Department of Developmental Psychology and Socialization, University of Padua

关键词: number representation;    time representation;    number-time interactions;    ATOM;    visuospatial attention;    dual task;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02882

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Whether the human brain processes various types of magnitude, such as numbers and time, through a shared representation or whether there are different representations for each type of magnitude is still debated. Here, we investigated two aspects of number-time interaction: the effects of implicit and explicit processing of time on numbers and the bi-directional interaction between time and number processing. Thirty-two participants were randomly assigned into two experimental groups that performed, respectively, a Single task (number comparison, with implicit time processing) and a Dual task (number comparison as a primary task, with explicit time processing as a secondary task). Results showed that participants, only in the Dual task, were faster and more accurate when processing large numbers paired with long rather than short durations, whereas the opposite pattern was not evident for small numbers. Moreover, participants were more accurate when judging long durations after having processed large rather than small numbers, whereas the opposite pattern emerged for short durations. We propose that number processing influences time processing more than vice versa, suggesting that numbers and time might be at least partially independently represented. This finding can pave the way for investigating the hierarchical representation of space, numbers, and time.

【 授权许可】

CC BY