Low numbers from a low head? Effects of observed head orientation on numerical cognition
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Low numbers from a low head? Effects of observed head orientation on numerical cognition Felix J. Götz1 · Anne Böckler1 · Andreas B. Eder1 Received: 19 December 2018 / Accepted: 21 June 2019 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract The present research shows effects of observed vertical head orientation of another person on numerical cognition in the observer. Participants saw portrait-like photographs of persons from a frontal view with gaze being directed at the camera and the head being tilted up or down (vs. not tilted). The photograph appeared immediately before each trial in different numerical cognition tasks. In Experiment 1, participants produced smaller numbers in a random number generation task after having viewed persons with a down-tilted head orientation relative to up-tilted and non-tilted head orientations. In Experiment 2, numerical estimates in an anchoring-like trivia question task were smaller following presentations of persons with a down-tilted head orientation relative to a non-tilted head orientation. In Experiment 3, a response key that was associated with larger numbers in a numerical magnitude task was pressed less frequently in a randomly intermixed free choice task when the photograph showed a person with a down-tilted relative to an up-tilted head orientation. These findings consistently show that social displays can influence numerical cognition across a variety of task settings.
Introduction Imagine that after a day of sightseeing in Rome, you discuss the height of St. Peter’s Basilica with a friend at the hotel bar. Your friend looks down and comes up with an estimate of 180 meters. Now you are starting to ponder about the height of the dome. Will your own estimate be higher or lower depending on your friend’s head orientation? Most people will likely doubt such an influence: The size of the dome is, after all, independent of your friend’s head posture. However, the present research suggests that the spatial information inherent to body cues could bias numerical estimates due to a spatial grounding of numerical cognition. Modern research on numerical cognition found that numerical and spatial cognition are intimately linked. To illustrate this bidirectional association between numbers and space, the notion of a ‘mental number line’ was borrowed from research on numerical comparisons (Moyer and Landauer 1967; Restle 1970). This concept describes an imagery analog system for the cognitive representation of magnitudes and/or their numerical symbols along a vertical (or * Felix J. Götz felix.goetz@uni‑wuerzburg.de 1
Department of Psychology, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Röntgenring 10, 97070 Würzburg, Germany
horizontal) continuum: A small number is represented by a coding of a low (or left) position, while a large number is represented by a coding of a high (or right) position (e.g., Winter and Matlock 2013; for a review, see Winter et al. 2015).
Bidirectional link between numerical magnitude and spatial attention Evi
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