Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 25, 2026

Generating Strictly Controlled Stimuli for Figure Recognition Experiments
Published on: March 18, 2019
Symbolic estrangement: evidence against a strong association between numerical symbols and the quantities they
Ian M Lyons1, Daniel Ansari, Sian L Beilock
1University of Chicago, Department of Psychology, 5848 South University Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
Abstract:
Are numerals estranged from a sense of the actual quantities they represent? We demonstrate that, irrespective of numerical size or distance, direct comparison of the relative quantities represented by symbolic and nonsymbolic formats leads to performance markedly worse than when comparing 2 nonsymbolic quantities (Experiment 1). Experiment 2 shows that this effect cannot be attributed to differences in perceptual processing streams. Experiment 3 shows that there is no additional cost of mixing 2 formats that are both symbolic; that is, the decrement in mixing formats is specific to mixing symbolic and nonsymbolic representations. In sum, we show that accessing a sense of how much a numerical symbol actually represents is a surprisingly difficult and nontrivial process. Our data are consistent with the view that numerical symbols operate primarily as an associative system in which relations between symbols come to overshadow those between symbols and their quantity referents.
Related Concept Videos
Real Number Operations
Sign Test for Nominal Data
For example, consider a...
Elements: Chemical Symbols and Isotopes
Some symbols are derived from the common English name of the element; others are abbreviations of the name in another language — Latin, Greek or German. For example, the symbol for aluminum (common name)...
Introduction to the Sign Test
Sign Test for Matched Pairs
To conduct the sign test, we first calculate the differences in value between...
Summation Notation
