Mechanisms of visuo-spatial attention involved in processing numerical magnitude and solving arithmetical problems

Masson, Nicolas [UCL]

Most human activities require dealing with numerical quantities. Since early childhood, human beings are intensively trained to compare and manipulate numbers. Recent findings in numerical cognition and space processing literature have suggested that mental arithmetic could rely on attentional shifts. Behavioural paradigms, eye-tracking techniques and neuropsychological investigations were used in order to describe the role of attentional mechanisms in arithmetic solving. This work shows for the first time that solving addition or subtraction problems induces attentional shifts to the right or to the left, respectively. Our results suggest that attentional mechanisms are crucial for solving additions and subtractions.