S. Dehaene et R. Akhavein, ATTENTION, AUTOMATICITY, AND LEVELS OF REPRESENTATION IN NUMBER PROCESSING, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition, 21(2), 1995, pp. 314-326
Participants performed same-different judgements for pairs of numerals
in 2 conditions: numerical matching (responding ''same'' to pairs suc
h as 2-TWO), or physical matching (responding ''different'' to pairs s
uch as 2-TWO). In most cases, a distance effect was obtained, with the
different responses being slower when the 2 numbers were numerically
close together (e.g., 1-2) than when they were further apart (e.g., 1-
8). This indicates that numbers were automatically converted mentally
into quantities, even when the participants had been told to attend ex
clusively to their physical characteristics. As postulated by several
models of number processing, (e.g., Dehaene, 1992; McCloskey, 1992) Ar
abic and verbal numerals thus appear to converge toward a common seman
tic representation of quantities. However, the present results suggest
that an asemantic transcoding route might allow for a direct mapping
of Arabic and verbal numbers, perhaps by means of a common phonologica
l representation.