Nicholls Michael E R, Lew Megan, Loetscher Tobias, Yates Mark J
Brain & Cognition Laboratory, School of Psychology, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide, South Australia 5001, Australia.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2011 Jul;73(5):1604-13. doi: 10.3758/s13414-011-0114-x.
Time, number, and space may be represented in the brain by a common set of cognitive/neural mechanisms. In support of this conjecture, Schwarz and Eiselt (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 35, 989-1004, 2009) found that numerically smaller digits were perceived to occur earlier than larger digits, and they concluded that this difference reflected faster processing of smaller numbers. This difference, however, could have been related to a response bias, whereby participants map responses of "which first" onto the "first" number along the mental number line. In Experiment 1, participants made temporal order judgements between digits presented to the left or to the right. The point of subjective simultaneity was shifted so that the 9 had to be presented before the 2 in order for simultaneity to be perceived. This difference could reflect either faster processing of the 2 or a response bias. Experiments 2a and 2b eliminated response biases by using simultaneity judgements, which have no logical stimulus mapping. Both of the latter experiments established that the 2 was not processed faster than the 9. Although the present results relate specifically to numerical magnitude and temporal order associations, they also have broader implications. Other studies have reported associations between dimensions such as size, duration, and number and have attributed these to parietal mechanisms. Such associations, however, may also be an artefact of response biases.
时间、数字和空间可能由一组共同的认知/神经机制在大脑中进行表征。为支持这一推测，施瓦茨和艾泽尔特（《实验心理学杂志：人类感知与表现》，第35卷，第989 - 1004页，2009年）发现，数值较小的数字比数值较大的数字被感知为出现得更早，他们得出结论，这种差异反映了较小数字的处理速度更快。然而，这种差异可能与反应偏差有关，即参与者将“哪个先出现”的反应映射到心理数字线上的“第一个”数字上。在实验1中，参与者对呈现于左侧或右侧的数字进行时间顺序判断。主观同时性点发生了偏移，以至于为了让人们感知到同时性，9必须在2之前呈现。这种差异可能反映了对2的处理速度更快，也可能反映了反应偏差。实验2a和2b通过使用同时性判断消除了反应偏差，因为同时性判断不存在逻辑刺激映射。后两个实验均证实，对2的处理速度并不比9快。尽管目前的结果具体涉及数值大小和时间顺序关联，但它们也具有更广泛的意义。其他研究报告了诸如大小、持续时间和数字等维度之间的关联，并将其归因于顶叶机制。然而，这种关联也可能是反应偏差的一种人为现象。
