Primed numbers: Exploring the modularity of numerical representations with masked and unmasked semantic priming

In Experiment 1, participants classified a 1st number (prime) as smaller or larger than 5 and then performed the same task again on a 2nd number (targe). In Experiment 2, participants classified a target number as smaller or larger than 5, while unknown to them a masked number was displayed for 66 ms prior to the target. Primes and targets appeared in Arabic notation, in verbal notation, or as random dot patterns. Two forms of priming were analyzed: quantity priming (a decrease in response times with the numerical distance between prime and target) and response priming (faster responses when the prime and target were on the same side of 5 than when they were not), Response priming transferred across notations, whereas quantity priming generally did not. Under conditions of speeded processing, the internal representation of numerical quantities seems to dissociate Into multiple notation-specific subsystems.