ArticlePsychological research2021
Numerals do not need numerosities: robust evidence for distinct numerical representations for symbolic and non-symbolic numbers.
Article in Psychological research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Same digits, different magnitudes: manual reaching unveils dual systems in symbolic number representation.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Article
- A study of notation dependence in fraction magnitude processing using event related potentials.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- How do basic numerical skills matter in the association of phonological processing with arithmetic?BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Numerical format integration in primary school children examined with frequency-tagged electroencephalography.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Symbolic and non-symbolic numbers differently affect center identification in a number-line bisection task.PloS one · 2025Article
- Contrasting symbolic and non-symbolic numerical representations in a joint classification task.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2023Article
- Nonsymbolic Numerosity Maps at the Occipitotemporal Cortex Respond to Symbolic Numbers.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023Article
- Length is not all that matters: testing the role of number identity and the ratio of fillers in comparisons of multi-digits with different digit length.Psychological research · 2023Article
- A shared numerical magnitude representation evidenced by the distance effect in frequency-tagging EEG.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Toward a unified account of nonsymbolic and symbolic representations of number: Insights from a combined psychophysical-computational approach.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2022Article
- Automatic integration of numerical formats examined with frequency-tagged EEG.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Non-symbolic representation is modulated by math anxiety and cognitive inhibition while symbolic representation not.Psychological research · 2021Article
- Electrophysiological Signatures of Numerosity Encoding in a Delayed Match-to-Sample Task.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2021Article
- Article
- Common and distinct predictors of non-symbolic and symbolic ordinal number processing across the early primary school years.PloS one · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
In numerical cognition research, it has traditionally been argued that the processing of symbolic numerals (e.g., digits) is identical to the processing of the non-symbolic numerosities (e.g., dot arrays), because both number formats are represented in one common magnitude system-the Approximate Number System (ANS). In this study, we abandon this deeply rooted assumption and investigate whether the processing of numerals and numerosities can be dissociated, using an audio-visual paradigm in combination with various experimental manipulations. In Experiment 1, participants performed four comparison tasks with large symbolic and non-symbolic numbers: (1) number word-digit (2) tones-dots, (3) number word-dots, (4) tones-digit. In Experiment 2, we manipulated the number range (small vs. large) and the presentation modality (visual-auditory vs. auditory-visual). Results demonstrated ratio effects (i.e., the signature of ANS being addressed) in all tasks containing numerosities, but not in the task containing numerals only. Additionally, a cognitive cost was observed when participants had to integrate symbolic and non-symbolic numbers. Therefore, these results provide robust (i.e., independent of presentation modality or number range) evidence for distinct processing of numerals and numerosities, and argue for the existence of two independent number processing systems.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.