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Semantic numerical representation in blind subjects: the role of vision in the spatial format of the mental number line.

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Castronovo, Julie [UCL] Seron, Xavier [UCL]

Does vision play a role in the elaboration of the semantic representation of small and large numerosities, notably in its spatial format? To investigate this issue, we decided to compare in the auditory modality the performance of congenitally and early blind people with that of a sighted control group, in two number comparison tasks (to 5 and to 55) and in one parity judgement task. Blind and sighted participants presented exactly the same distance and SNARC (Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes) effects, indicating that they share the same semantic numerical representation. In consequence, our results suggest that the spatial dimension of the numerical representation is not necessarily attributable to the visual modality and that the absence of vision does not preclude the elaboration of this representation for 1-digit (Experiment 1) and 2-digit numerosities (Experiment 2). Moreover, as classical semantic numerical effects were observed in the auditory modality, the postulate of the amodal nature of the mental number line for both small and large magnitudes was reinforced.

Document type Article de périodique (Journal article) – Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Access type Accès restreint
Publication date 2007
Journal information "Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006)" - Vol. 60, no. 1, p. 101-19 (2007)
Peer reviewed yes
issn 1747-0218
Publication status Publié
Affiliation UCL - PSP/PSP - faculté de psychologie et des sciences de l'éducation
MESH Subject Acoustic Stimulation - methods ; Adolescent ; Adult ; Analysis of Variance ; Blindness - psychology ; Distance Perception - physiology ; Female ; Humans ; Imagination - physiology ; Judgment - physiology ; Male ; Mathematics ; Middle Aged ; Psychomotor Performance - physiology ; Reaction Time - physiology ; Semantics ; Space Perception - physiology ; Vision, Ocular - physiology ; Visually Impaired Persons - psychology
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Bibliographic reference Castronovo, Julie ; Seron, Xavier. Semantic numerical representation in blind subjects: the role of vision in the spatial format of the mental number line.. In: Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006), Vol. 60, no. 1, p. 101-19 (2007)
Permanent URL http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/28759