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Using Virtual Reality to Transfer Motor Skill Knowledge from One Hand to Another
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Published on: September 18, 2017

How do we convert a number into a finger trajectory?

Dror Dotan1, Stanislas Dehaene

  • 1INSERM, U992, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, F-91191 Gif/Yvette, France; Language and Brain Lab, School of Education and Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.

Cognition
|September 18, 2013
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Adults understand two-digit numbers using a parallel processing of decades and units digits. Finger movements reveal a transient logarithmic scale, suggesting a dormant compressive quantity representation in the adult brain.

Keywords:
Holistic processingMental number lineNumber representationNumerical estimationTwo-digit numbers

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Number cognition

Background:

  • Models of multi-digit number comprehension vary, with some suggesting serial processing and others holistic mapping.
  • The adult number line is typically considered linear, but the
  • number sense
  • hypothesis proposes an underlying logarithmic scale.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how adults comprehend two-digit numbers.
  • To determine if number representation is linear or logarithmic in adults.
  • To explore the processing of decades and units digits.

Main Methods:

  • Adult participants pointed to two-digit numbers on a number line.
  • Finger trajectories were continuously monitored.
  • Analysis focused on scale representation and digit processing.

Main Results:

  • Finger trajectories indicated a linear scale with a transient logarithmic effect.
  • This suggests a compressive and holistic quantity representation.
  • Units and decades digits were processed in parallel, unaffected by reading direction.
  • Later trajectory phases were influenced by spatial reference points.

Conclusions:

  • Finger trajectory analysis offers a detailed cognitive decomposition of number-to-quantity conversion.
  • Adult number comprehension involves parallel processing and a transiently activated compressive representation.
  • Spatial cues significantly influence number placement on a mental number line.