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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 6, 2025

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Published on: January 23, 2017

Endogenous attention modulates automaticity of number processing.

Aviv Avitan¹, Shir Wasserman², Avishai Henik^2,3

¹Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O.B. 653, Beer-Sheva, Israel. avav@post.bgu.ac.il.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

|January 3, 2024

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Numerical magnitude processing is partly automatic, influenced by attention, unlike physical size processing which is strongly automatic. This research clarifies automaticity in cognitive processes involving numerals.

Keywords:

Attention Automaticity Numerical processing Size-congruity effect

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Human Perception

Background:

Numerical magnitude processing is often considered automatic, supported by effects like the distance effect and physical size-congruity effect (SiCE).
These effects suggest unintentional processing of numerical magnitude, even when irrelevant to a task.
However, attentional influences on magnitude processing challenge the purely automatic account.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the role of endogenous attention in the processing of numerical and physical magnitudes of numerals.
To reconcile conflicting evidence regarding the automaticity of numerical magnitude processing.
To differentiate between strongly and partly automatic mental processes based on attentional modulation.

Main Methods:

Participants performed separate numerical and physical comparisons of numerals.
Endogenous attention was manipulated during these tasks.
The physical size-congruity effect (SiCE) was examined under different attentional conditions.

Main Results:

Modulations of the SiCE were observed for physical comparisons of numerals.
No significant modulations of the SiCE were found for numerical comparisons of numerals.
Attentional influences affected the processing of numerical magnitude but not physical magnitude.

Conclusions:

Processing of numerical magnitude is partly automatic, being susceptible to attentional influences.
Processing of physical magnitude (size) of numerals is strongly automatic, showing resilience to attentional manipulation.
This distinction clarifies the nuanced nature of automaticity in cognitive tasks involving symbolic numerical representations.