MINDS EYE AND THE COMPARATIVE JUDGMENT OF NUMBER

The proposal that the comparative judgement of numerals is transformed from a symbolic comparison into a perceptual judgement via the use of imagery was examined in a task in which pairs of Arabic numerals were displayed in either the left or right visual field and subjects decided which number was numerically larger by pressing a key. Reaction time was faster in the RVF although there were effects of Hand and an interaction between Hand and Visual Field. These results were interpreted as (i) providing no support for the imagery hypothesis, (ii) evidence consistent with unilateral as opposed to bilateral processing, and (iii) evidence consistent with the proposal that the manipulation of linguostic codes underlies the comparative judgement of number. © 1979.