University of Padua

Numerical magnitude, rather than individual bias, explains spatial numerical association in newborn chicks

Rugani, Rosa and Vallortigara, Giorgio and Priftis, Konstantinos and Regolin, Lucia (2020) Numerical magnitude, rather than individual bias, explains spatial numerical association in newborn chicks. [Data Collection]

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We associate small numbers with the left side and large numbers with the right side of space. Recent evidence from human newborns and non-human animals has challenged the primary role assigned to culture, chiefly linked to reading and writing habits, in determining this spatial numerical association (SNA). Nevertheless, the effect of individual spatial biases has not been considered in previous research. Here we tested the effect of numerical magnitude in SNA and we also controlled for individual biases. We trained 3-day-old chicks (Gallus gallus) on a given numerical magnitude (i.e., 5). Then chicks could choose between two identical, left or right, stimuli both representing either 2, 8, or the familiar numerosity (5). We computed the percentage of Left-sided Choice (LC). We found that LC is explained by numerical magnitude: LC2vs.2 > LC5vs.5 > LC8vs.8, and not by individual lateral bias in the spatial task. This findings suggest that SNA originates from pre-linguistic precursors, and paves the way to the investigation of the neural correlates of the number space association.

DOI: 10.25430/researchdata.cab.unipd.it.00000326
Keywords: Spatial numerical association, mental number line, domestic chicks, number sense
Subjects: Life Sciences > Neuroscience and Neural Disorders: Neural cell function and signalling, systems neuroscience, neural bases of cognitive and behavioural processes, neurological and psychiatric disorders > Neural bases of cognitive processes (e.g. memory, learning, attention)
Department: Departments > Dipartimento di Psicologia Generale (DPG)
Depositing User: Rosa Rugani
Date Deposited: 14 May 2020 14:49
Last Modified: 02 Sep 2022 10:40
Creators/Authors:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Rugani, Rosarosa.rugani@unipd.itorcid.org/0000-0001-5294-6306
Vallortigara, Giorgiogiorgio.vallortigara@unitn.itorcid.org/0000-0001-8192-9062
Priftis, Konstantinoskonstantinos.priftis@unipd.itorcid.org/0000-0002-5215-4621
Regolin, Lucialucia.regolin@unipd.itorcid.org/0000-0001-8960-0309
Type of data: Database
Collection period:
FromTo
20162019
Resource language: English
Metadata language: English
Publisher: Research Data Unipd
Date: 29 January 2020
Copyright holders: The Author
URI: https://researchdata.cab.unipd.it/id/eprint/326

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