On the relative speed account of number-size interference in comparative judgments of numerals. |
| |
Authors: | Schwarz, Wolfgang Ischebeck, Anja |
| |
Abstract: | Humans show systematic congruency effects due to irrelevant variations of the numerical value or the physical size of digits in judgments about either of these 2 attributes alone. According to influential models (e.g., J. Tzelgov, J. Meyer, & A. Henik, 1992), these effects are characterized by genuine asymmetries of size and number processing not accounted for by simple relative speed considerations, whereas some recent work (e.g., A. Pansky & D. Algom, 1999) partly challenges this view. This article presents 2 qualitative gradient-based predictions made by relative speed models and a diffusion-based implementation of the relative speed view to quantitatively account for response times and error rates in comparative judgments of digits. The results of 2 experiments using a completely task-symmetric design are in accord with these detailed predictions; they are also consistent with the view that both number and size are converted into magnitude representations of similar structure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
| |
Keywords: | numerical value physical size of digits number processing magnitude judgements relative speed model reaction time errors |
|
|