TY - JOUR
T1 - The representation of negative numbers
T2 - Exploring the effects of mode of processing and notation
AU - Tzelgov, Joseph
AU - Ganor-Stern, Dana
AU - Maymon-Schreiber, Keren
N1 - Funding Information:
Correspondence should be addressed to Joseph Tzelgov, Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel, 84105. E-mail: [email protected] This research was supported by the Israeli Science Foundation Grant 825/00 to J.T. We wish to thank Zohar Bar and Boaz Tzur for help in running Experiments 1 and 2. Experiment 2 was run by Keren Maymon-Schreiber in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an MA degree in Psychology.
PY - 2009/6/8
Y1 - 2009/6/8
N2 - The representation of negative numbers was explored during intentional processing (i.e., when participants performed a numerical comparison task) and during automatic processing (i.e., when participants performed a physical comparison task). Performance in both cases suggested that negative numbers were not represented as a whole but rather their polarity and numerical magnitudes were represented separately. To explore whether this was due to the fact that polarity and magnitude are marked by two spatially separated symbols, participants were trained to mark polarity by colour. In this case there was still evidence for a separate representation of polarity and magnitude. However, when a different set of stimuli was used to refer to positive and negative numbers, and polarity was not marked separately, participants were able to represent polarity and magnitude together when numerical processing was performed intentionally but not when it was conducted automatically. These results suggest that notation is only partly responsible for the components representation of negative numbers and that the concept of negative numbers can be grasped only through that of positive numbers.
AB - The representation of negative numbers was explored during intentional processing (i.e., when participants performed a numerical comparison task) and during automatic processing (i.e., when participants performed a physical comparison task). Performance in both cases suggested that negative numbers were not represented as a whole but rather their polarity and numerical magnitudes were represented separately. To explore whether this was due to the fact that polarity and magnitude are marked by two spatially separated symbols, participants were trained to mark polarity by colour. In this case there was still evidence for a separate representation of polarity and magnitude. However, when a different set of stimuli was used to refer to positive and negative numbers, and polarity was not marked separately, participants were able to represent polarity and magnitude together when numerical processing was performed intentionally but not when it was conducted automatically. These results suggest that notation is only partly responsible for the components representation of negative numbers and that the concept of negative numbers can be grasped only through that of positive numbers.
KW - Automaticity
KW - Negative numbers
KW - Notation
KW - Numerical processing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=65349174486&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/17470210802034751
DO - 10.1080/17470210802034751
M3 - Article
C2 - 18609405
AN - SCOPUS:65349174486
SN - 1747-0218
VL - 62
SP - 605
EP - 624
JO - Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
JF - Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
IS - 3
ER -