Podwysocki Christine, Reeve Robert A, Forte Jason D
Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia.
Front Psychol. 2019 Mar 27;10:692. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00692. eCollection 2019.
The degree to which the ability to mark the location of numbers on a number-to-position (NP) task reflects a mental number line (MNL) representation, or a representation that supports ordered lists more generally, is yet to be resolved. Some argue that findings from linear equation modeling, often used to characterize NP task judgments, support the MNL hypothesis. Others claim that NP task judgments reflect strategic processes; while others suggest the MNL proposition could be extended to include ordered list processing more generally. Insofar as the latter two claims are supported, it would suggest a more nuanced account of the MNL hypothesis is required. To investigate these claims, 84 participants completed a NP and an alphabet-to-position task in which they marked the position of numbers/letters on a horizontal line. Of interest was whether: (1) similar judgment deviations from linearity occurred for number/letter stimuli; (2) left-to-right or right-to-left lines similarly, affected number/letter judgments; and (3) response times (RTs) differed as a function of number/letter stimuli and/or reverse/standard lines. While RTs were slower marking letter stimuli compared to number stimuli, they did not differ in the standard compared to the reverse number/letter lines. Furthermore, similar patterns of non-linear RTs were found marking stimuli on the number/letter lines, suggesting that similar strategic processes were at play. These findings suggest that a general mental representation may underlie ordered list processing and that a linear mental representation is not a unique feature of number . This is consistent with the hypothesis that number is supported by a representation that lends itself to processing ordered sequences in general.
在数字到位置（NP）任务中标记数字位置的能力在多大程度上反映了心理数字线（MNL）表征，或者更普遍地说，反映了支持有序列表的表征，这一问题尚待解决。一些人认为，常用于描述NP任务判断的线性方程建模结果支持MNL假设。另一些人则声称，NP任务判断反映了策略性过程；还有一些人认为，MNL命题可以更普遍地扩展到包括有序列表处理。如果后两种说法得到支持，那就意味着需要对MNL假设进行更细致入微的解释。为了研究这些说法，84名参与者完成了一项NP任务和一项字母到位置任务，他们在一条水平线上标记数字/字母的位置。研究感兴趣的是：（1）数字/字母刺激是否出现类似的非线性判断偏差；（2）从左到右或从右到左的线条是否同样影响数字/字母判断；（3）反应时间（RTs）是否因数字/字母刺激和/或反向/标准线条而有所不同。虽然与数字刺激相比，标记字母刺激的RTs较慢，但与反向数字/字母线条相比，标准线条中的RTs并无差异。此外，在数字/字母线上标记刺激时发现了类似的非线性RTs模式，这表明类似的策略性过程在起作用。这些发现表明，一种一般的心理表征可能是有序列表处理的基础，而线性心理表征并非数字所独有的特征。这与数字由一种通常有助于处理有序序列的表征所支持的假设是一致的。
