Automatic and intentional processing of numerical order and its relationship to arithmetic performance

A comes before B, like 1 comes before 2. Is the parietal cortex sensitive to ordinal relationships in both numbers and letters? An fMRI‐adaptation study

“…Although ordinality could not explain the parametric effect, it remains to be seen whether a different mechanism can explain the parametric effect for number symbols. For example, perhaps ordinal associations underlie this effect, but the ordinal associations between these symbols must be processed fluently and automatically in order to generate the parametric effect in a passive task (Vogel et al, ). Gevers, Reynvoet, and Fias () found that the ordinal position of letter stimuli in an active task influenced task performance when participants completed an ordinal decision task.…”

“…A key question is why did the neural response for numbers and letters differ? Vogel et al () suggested that the ordinal relationships between numbers may be processed automatically. It could be that ordinal relationships are not as fluent in letters as they are in numbers.…”

The semantic control network mediates the relationship between symbolic numerical order processing and arithmetic performance in children

“…The significant distinction of these two task related effects has led to the interpretation that symbolic numerical order processing taps into unique processing mechanisms that can be dissociated from symbolic numerical magnitudes. The assumption of a dissociation has been further corroborated by a number of studies that have found that (a) the reverse distance effect and the canonical distance effect explain unique variance in individual differences in arithmetic abilities both in children (Goffin & Ansari, 2016; Vogel, Remark, & Ansari, 2014) and in adults (Vogel, Haigh, et al, 2017; Stephan E. Vogel et al, 2019a); (b) that relative the strength of this association expresses different developmental trajectories—the strength between symbolic numerical order and arithmetic increases during the first years of formal education (Lyons et al, 2014; Sasanguie & Vos, 2018; Vogel, Remark, & Ansari, 2014) and (c) that symbolic numerical order may mediates the well-established association between symbolic numerical magnitude processing and arithmetic alibies in children and adults (Sasanguie, Lyons, Smedt, & Reynvoet, 2017; Sasanguie & Vos, 2018). Together, an increasing body of studies have provided significant evidence that symbolic numerical order constitutes a unique numerical dimension and that it is a significant and reliable predictor of arithmetic abilities in children (Lyons & Ansari, 2015; Lyons, Price, Vaessen, Blomert, & Ansari, 2014; Sasanguie & Vos, 2018) as well as in adults (Lyons & Beilock, 2011; Vogel, Haigh, et al, 2017; Vogel et al, 2019).…”

“…Reaction time measures associated with this ordinal processing demonstrate a so called reverse distance effect: that is numbers with an inter-item distance of one (e.g., 2-3-4) are solved faster compared to trials with an inter-item distance of two (e.g., 2-4-6). Several authors have recently commented on this effect and have argued that the significant facilitation in reaction times (i.e., reverse distance effect) may arises as a product of high familiarity with consecutive items retrieved from memory (Franklin, Jonides, & Smith, 2009; Lyons & Beilock, 2013; Vogel, Haigh, et al, 2017; Vogel et al, 2019a). Importantly, recent studies have also shown that the characteristic pattern of a reverse distance effect is significantly different from the well-known canonical distance effect—larger reaction times for small distances (e.g., 2-3) compared to large distances (e.g., 2-8)—that is typically observed during number comparison tasks (Goffin & Ansari, 2016; Turconi, Campbell, & Seron, 2006).…”

“…While the discussed studies provide important insights into numerical order processing and its relationship to mathematical abilities, the findings are still ambiguous and no firm conclusion about the involved cognitive mechanism can be made. One potential explanation for the findings is that numerical order processing relates to cognitive strategies that enable an efficient retrieval of relevant ordinal information from long-term memory (Vogel et al, 2019b). These strategies may converge and overlap with cognitive processes that allow the retrieval of arithmetic information.…”