The predictive role of eye movements in mental arithmetic

Salvaggio, Samuel; Masson, Nicolas; Zénon, Alexandre; Andres, Michaël

doi:10.1007/s00221-022-06329-3

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…The difference between Congruent to Bright (small numbers and bright left, large numbers and bright right) and Congruent to Dark (small numbers and dark left, large numbers and dark right) was tested in every bin using a paired t-test and clusters were constituted by grouping all bins that showed a significant difference (p < 0.05). The multiple comparison issue was addressed by means of a nonparametric random permutation procedure in which pupil size was permuted randomly between the conditions across all the bins of a given trial and compared statistically by paired t-tests (for a similar procedure, see Sahan et al, 2021;Salvaggio et al, 2019Salvaggio et al, , 2022Maris & Oostenveld, 2007). Significant clusters were isolated using the same criteria as those described for the analysis of the non-permuted data.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This method has low reliability as attested by several failed replications (e.g., Colling et al, 2020;Fattorini et al, 2015;van Dijck et al, 2014) and is subject to response biases not implying spatial attention (Andres et al, 2020;Galarraga et al, 2021;Gevers et al, 2006;Proctor & Cho, 2006). A more direct approach to SNAs has consisted of using an eye-tracker to record overt attention shifts during various numerical tasks (Hartmann et al, 2015;Loetscher et al, 2010;Masson et al, 2018;Myachykov et al, 2016;Salvaggio et al, 2019Salvaggio et al, , 2022. The results converged to show that the serial order processing of numbers in working memory elicits eye movements along a left-to-right oriented axis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pupil size variations reveal covert shifts of attention induced by numbers

et al. 2022

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The pupil light response is more than a pure reflexive mechanism that reacts to the amount of light entering the eye. The pupil size may also react to the luminance of objects lying in the visual periphery, revealing the locus of covert attention. In the present study, we took advantage of this response to study the spatial coding of abstract concepts with no physical counterpart: numbers. The participants' gaze was maintained fixed in the middle of a screen whose left and right parts were dark or bright, and variations in pupil size were recorded during an auditory number comparison task. The results showed that small numbers accentuated pupil dilation when the darker part of the screen was on the left, while large numbers accentuated pupil dilation when the darker part of the screen was on the right. This finding provides direct evidence for covert attention shifts on a left-to-right oriented mental spatial representation of numbers. From a more general perspective, it shows that the pupillary response to light is subject to modulation from spatial attention mechanisms operating on mental contents.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pupil size variations reveal covert shifts of attention induced by numbers

et al. 2022

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“…This effect was maximal when the second operand appeared 300 ms after the operator. More recently, the time-resolved analysis of gaze position during arithmetic problem solving revealed differences in horizontal eye positions between addition and subtraction in two time windows -immediately after the presentation of the arithmetic operator and during response preparation (Salvaggio et al, 2022). These results suggest that early attentional effects emerge very rapidly upon the presentation of the arithmetic operator.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Spatial biases in approximate arithmetic are subject to sequential dependency effects and dissociate from attentional biases

Glaser

Knops

2023

J. Numer. Cogn.

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The notion that mental arithmetic is associated with shifts of spatial attention along a spatially organised mental number representation has received empirical support from three lines of research. First, participants tend to overestimate results of addition and underestimate those of subtraction problems in both exact and approximate formats. This has been termed the operational momentum (OM) effect. Second, participants are faster in detecting right-sided targets presented in the course of addition problems and left-sided targets in subtraction problems (attentional bias). Third, participants are biased toward choosing right-sided response alternatives to indicate the results of addition problems and left-sided response alternatives for subtraction problems (Spatial Association Of Responses [SOAR] effect). These effects potentially have their origin in operation-specific shifts of attention along a spatially organised mental number representation: rightward for addition and leftward for subtraction. Using a lateralised target detection task during the calculation phase of non-symbolic additions and subtractions, the current study measured the attentional focus, the OM and SOAR effects. In two experiments, we replicated the OM and SOAR effects but did not observe operation-specific biases in the lateralised target-detection task. We describe two new characteristics of the OM effect: First, a time-resolved, block-wise analysis of both experiments revealed sequential dependency effects in that the OM effect builds up over the course of the experiment, driven by the increasing underestimation of subtraction over time. Second, the OM effect was enhanced after arithmetic operation repetition compared to trials where arithmetic operation switched from one trial to the next. These results call into question the operation-specific attentional biases as the sole generator of the observed effects and point to the involvement of additional, potentially decisional processes that operate across trials.

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“…Apart from simple counting and number comparison tasks, gaze behavior was also linked to mental arithmetic (Blini et al, 2019;Hartmann, 2022;Hartmann et al, 2015;Masson & Pesenti, 2023;Salvaggio et al, 2022). For example, Blini et al elicited optokinetic nystagmus (OKN) to investigate the potential functional role of eye movements in addition and subtraction.…”

Section: Imagery Associated With Numerical Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internal Coupling: Eye Behavior Coupled to Visual Imagery

Korda,

Walcher,

Körner

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Our eyes do not only respond to visual perception but also to internal cognition involving visual imagery, which can be referred to as internal coupling. This review synthesizes evidence on internal coupling across diverse domains including episodic memory and simulation, visuospatial memory, numerical cognition, object movement, body movement, and brightness imagery. In each domain, eye movements consistently reflect distinct aspects of mental imagery typically akin to those seen in corresponding visual experiences. Several findings further suggest that internal coupling may not only coincide with but also supports internal cognition as evidenced by improved cognitive performance. Available theoretical accounts suggest that internal coupling may serve at least two functional roles in visual imagery: facilitating memory reconstruction and indicating shifts in internal attention. Moreover, recent insights into the neurobiology of internal coupling highlight substantially shared neural pathways in externally and internally directed cognition. The review concludes by identifying open questions and promising avenues for future research such as exploring moderating roles of context and individual differences in internal coupling.

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The predictive role of eye movements in mental arithmetic

Cited by 10 publications

References 51 publications

Pupil size variations reveal covert shifts of attention induced by numbers

Pupil size variations reveal covert shifts of attention induced by numbers

Spatial biases in approximate arithmetic are subject to sequential dependency effects and dissociate from attentional biases

Internal Coupling: Eye Behavior Coupled to Visual Imagery

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