Eye Movements Influence the Magnitude of Randomly Generated Numbers K Voigt1, M Yates1, T Loetscher2, A Ma-Wyatt3, M E Nicholls2 |
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1Spatial and Embodied Cognition Lab, School of Psychological Sciences / University of Melbourne, Australia |
| Theories of embodied cognition share the notion that the body and its sensory and motor systems play a fundamental role in cognition. Consistent with this view, it has recently been demonstrated [Loetscher et al, 2010, Current Biology, 20(6), R264-R265] that the magnitude of numbers generated by participants in a random number generation task could be predicted – prior to their being spoken - by tracking their eye movements. Specifically, leftward eye movements predicted smaller numbers and rightward eye movements predicted larger numbers. Remarkably, the size of the shift in eye position also predicted the size of the shift in numerical magnitude. An unresolved issue, however, is whether there is a causal link between eye movements and the magnitude of generated numbers. To address this, and to control for a possible mediating influence of head movements, three experiments were conducted. Participants made alternating left and right eye movements (Experiment 1), head movements (Experiment 2) or head and eye movements together (Experiment 3) whilst generating numbers at random, from 1 to 30 inclusive. Number magnitude was influenced by eye movements. The present study offers support for the embodied cognition framework, demonstrating that low-level physical manipulations of the body can influence abstract cognition. |
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