Masked priming effect with canonical finger numeral configurations

Abstract

Discrete numerosities can be represented by various finger configurations. The impact of counting strategies on these configurations and their possible semantic status were investigated in young adults. Experiment 1 showed that young adults named numerical finger configurations faster when they conformed to their own canonical finger-counting habits than when they did not. Experiment 2 showed that numeral finger configurations used as unconsciously presented primes speeded up numerical comparative judgements of Arabic numeral targets. Participants responded faster and made fewer errors with numerical than with non-numerical primes, and when primes and targets were congruent (i.e., leading to the same response). Moreover, this priming effect generalised to novel never consciously seen numerosities for canonical configurations but not for non-canonical ones. These results support the idea that canonical finger configurations automatically activate number semantics whereas non-canonical ones do not.