Mental Number Lines. SNARC Effect. Philosophical Aspects

• Authors: Katarzyna Patro , Wojciech Krysztofiak

Title variants

PL

Umysłowe osie liczbowe. Efekt SNARC. Aspekty filozoficzne

EN

Mental Number Lines. SNARC Effect. Philosophical Aspects

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

PL

The aim of the article is to propose a formal model of a representational system underlying the core numerical knowledge which is usually manifested in psychological experiments as the SNARC effect, size and distance effects, and the effect of numerical scale. Starting with the assumption that all the effects can be explained by a metaphor of a mental number line, we based our model on a hierarchical structure composed of three numerical axes characterized by different levels of representational efficiency: (i) a summation-accumulator axis, (ii) a point-place axis, and (iii) an exact point-based axis. The model predicts that a mature exact number line, in a form as it is observed in most of experiments with adults, arises as an effect of certain transformation processes occurring within first two primary, pre-existing axes. The paradigm underlying the theoretic construction may be interpreted philosophically as a neo-Kantian approach to modelling mind's representational structures.

• Publisher: University of Warsaw, Institute of Philosophy
• Journal: Filozofia Nauki
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 45-98

Dates

published

2013-09-01

Contributors

author

Katarzyna Patro

author

Wojciech Krysztofiak