Cognitive control in number magnitude processing: evidence from eye-tracking

The unit-decade compatibility effect describes longer response times and higher error rates for incompatible (e.g., 37_52) than compatible (e.g., 42_57) number comparisons. Recent research indicated that the effect depends on the percentage of same-decade filler items. In the present study, we further examined this relationship by recording participants' eye-fixation behaviour. In four conditions, participants had to compare item sets with different filler item types (i.e., same-decade and same-unit filler items) and different numbers of same-decade filler items (i.e., 25, 50, and 75%). We found a weaker unit-decade compatibility effect with most fixations on tens in the condition with same-unit filler items. Moreover, the compatibility effect increased with the percentage of same-decade filler items which was accompanied by less fixations on tens and more fixations on units. Thus, our study provides first eye-tracking evidence for the influence of cognitive control in number processing.