Cohen Dale J
University of North Carolina, Wilmington, NC 28403-5612, USA.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2009 Apr;16(2):332-6. doi: 10.3758/PBR.16.2.332.
Researchers have generally come to the conclusion that integers automatically activate the quantity they symbolize and that this quantity dominates responding. I conducted a strong test of this hypothesis with two numerical same/different experiments. On each trial, I presented the participant an integer between 1 and 9 and asked him or her to identify whether that symbol was a 5. If quantity information dominates responding, participants' reaction times (RTs) should be a function of the numerical distance between the target and the distractor. If quantity information is not activated, the integer is merely a shape, and participants' RTs should be a function of the physical similarity of the target and the distractor. The data from Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrate that quantity information exerts no control and that physical similarity is the primary controlling factor. These findings demonstrate that integers maintain a level of independence from their quantity representations.
研究人员普遍得出结论，整数会自动激活它们所象征的数量，并且这个数量主导反应。我通过两个数字相同/不同的实验对这一假设进行了有力测试。在每次试验中，我向参与者呈现一个1到9之间的整数，并要求他或她识别该符号是否为5。如果数量信息主导反应，参与者的反应时间（RTs）应该是目标与干扰项之间数字距离的函数。如果数量信息未被激活，整数仅仅是一种形状，参与者的RTs应该是目标与干扰项物理相似性的函数。实验1和实验2的数据表明，数量信息没有起到控制作用，物理相似性是主要的控制因素。这些发现表明，整数与其数量表征保持一定程度的独立性。
