Effects Of Egocentric Distance On Number-space Association In Three-Dimensional Framework

Numbers are omnipresent in everyday life,and numerous studies have shown a close relationship between numbers and spatial cognition.The study of numerical cognition found that the egocentric reference frame would affect the number-space association,and the body divides space categorically,such as the left and right space of the body,the upper and lower space,the space in front and the space behind the body.In addition to the left and right space and the upper and lower space,the body extends outward along the horizontal distance,namely,egocentric distance.we propose that,in situations in which egocentric distance is a meaningful factor(e.g.,a three-dimensional world).A total of 175 university students took part in this study.Target stimuli were the Arabic digits 1 to 9 with the exception of 5.The current study aimed to assess the effect of egocentric distance on number-space association,and a priming paradigm was used to explore the possible processing mechanism of this effect.In order to achieve the purpose and studies,we design two Pre-experiments and three formal experiments.Pre-experiment 1 is the baseline of the experiment,and Preexperiment 2 distinguished the effect of distance between vertical axis and egocentric distance on number-space association.Based on the pre-experimental results,egocentric distance was manipulated in Experiment 1 via manual responses executed close or far from one’s body,to explore the effect of egocentric distance on number-space association.To neutraliz the effect of distance-size confusion,Experiment 2 used verbal stimuli denoting near/remote concepts as irrelevant primes to target digits,further demonstrating that experiment 1 results were the automatic association between number and distance,rather than based on one’s own bodily actions and sensations.Experiment 3 used Parity judgement task to further verify the results of experiment 2.Results:(1)The pre-experimental results showed that the interaction between numbers and body-based left and right space and upper and lower space was significant,and there was SNARC effect.(2)Small numbers are related to the space close to the body,while large numbers are related to the space far away from the body,egocentric distance-number association is observed.(3)There was a priming effect of egocentric distance on representation of numbers.The word “near” would mainly activate small numbers,while the word “far” would activate large numbers.(4)In magnitude judgement task and parity judgement task,the interaction between prime type and target numerical value is significant,the near-far SNARC-like effect exists.Based on the above research results,the following conclusions can be drawn:(1)In a three-dimensional world,numbers are not only represented along a left-toright or a bottom-to-top mental plane,but also along a near-to-far plane.(2)Egocentric distance is spontaneously activated in numerical processing.(3)The near-far SNARC-like effect may have the same processing mechanism as the classical SNARC effect.