Cortex
Volume 45, Issue 10 , Pages 1261-1265, November 2009

The impact of visuo-spatial number forms on simple arithmetic

  • Jamie Ward

      Affiliations

    • Department of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Department of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK.
    • ,
  • Noam Sagiv

      Affiliations

    • Centre for Cognition and Neuroimaging, Brunel University, UK
    • ,
  • Brian Butterworth

      Affiliations

    • Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Psychology, University College London, UK

Received 11 November 2008; received in revised form 11 February 2009 and 2 March 2009; accepted 25 March 2009. published online 24 July 2009.

Abstract 

Number forms, conscious visuo-spatial representations of the sequence of numbers, are found in around 12% of the population. However, their contribution to numerical cognition is not well understood. In this study we contrast the speeded performance of individuals with number forms versus controls on single digit multiplication, subtraction and addition. Previous research has suggested that multiplication may rely more on retrieval of verbal facts whereas subtraction relies more on online calculation using a putatively spatial ‘mental number line’. If people with number forms rely more heavily on visual-spatial strategies than verbal ones then we hypothesised that multiplication may be disproportionately affected by this strategy relative to subtraction, and this was found.

Keywords: SNARC, Synaesthesia/synesthesia, Numbers, Number form, Space

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PII: S0010-9452(09)00213-5

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2009.03.017

Cortex
Volume 45, Issue 10 , Pages 1261-1265, November 2009

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