From Number to Action: Exploring 3D Motion Analysis and Mental Number Line

The mental number line (MNL) is a representation of symbolic numbers oriented from left to right. Most scientific studies focus on response times, but motor patterns while responding to numbers can provide insight into cognitive representations. A new study was conducted to investigate the influence of number processing on motor responses. Participants were presented with numerical or non-numerical stimuli and instructed to kick a small ball with their right index towards a soccer goal. The main finding was that kicking after observing a larger digit changed the temporal aspects of the movement, in particular, it extended the time in which the index reached maximum acceleration. This result shows a relationship between the magnitude of the observed experimental stimulus and the extension component of the movement.