Badets Arnaud, Duville Mathilde, Osiurak François
CNRS, INCIA - Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d'Aquitaine (UMR 5287), Université de Bordeaux, Bât. 2A- 2ème étage, 146 rue Léo Saignat, 33076, Bordeaux Cedex, France.
Laboratoire d'Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs (EA 3082), Université de Lyon, Lyon, France.
Cogn Process. 2020 Nov;21(4):501-508. doi: 10.1007/s10339-020-00983-7. Epub 2020 Jun 29.
Theoretical views suggest that tool use and numerical magnitude processing can interact during prospective actions. For example, if a person intends to make a meal for several persons the next week, she/he will have to keep in mind during the homework-week large dish and large food portions for this event. Here, the magnitude 'large' can influence the future choice for large dishes and other related large tools. This study presents the first empirical evidence supporting this hypothesis. During a prospective memory task that implied to keep in mind a future action, participants were required to use a tool after processing Arabic numbers. Small (less than 5) and large (more than 5) magnitudes were employed as cues for the initiation of the tool-use task, which required participants to use inverse pliers with a small or a large object, but only for some prospective trials. The inverse pliers were used to dissociate the hand action from the tool action with the object (for example, opening the hand produced the closing action of the tool). The results revealed that during prospective trials, number processing interacted only with the tool action toward the object and not with the hand action. Specifically, after the processing of large magnitudes, the initiation of the closing action of the tool (i.e. the opening action of the hand) was reduced. This finding is discussed in the light of theories on the emergence of semantics through tool actions.
理论观点表明，在预期行动中，工具使用和数字大小处理可能会相互作用。例如，如果一个人打算下周为几个人做一顿饭，那么在这一周的准备过程中，她/他就得记住要为这个活动准备大盘子和大量食物。在这里，“大”这个量值会影响未来对大盘子和其他相关大工具的选择。本研究提供了支持这一假设的首个实证证据。在一项暗示要记住未来行动的前瞻性记忆任务中，要求参与者在处理阿拉伯数字后使用工具。小（小于5）和大（大于5）的量值被用作启动工具使用任务的线索，该任务要求参与者用小或大的物体使用反向钳子，但只在一些前瞻性试验中使用。反向钳子用于将手部动作与工具对物体的动作区分开来（例如，张开手会导致工具的闭合动作）。结果显示，在前瞻性试验中，数字处理仅与工具对物体的动作相互作用，而与手部动作无关。具体而言，在处理大量值之后，工具闭合动作（即手部张开动作）的启动减少了。将根据通过工具动作产生语义的理论来讨论这一发现。
