Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Tool-number interaction during a prospective memory task

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Cognitive Processing Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Theoretical views suggest that tool use and numerical magnitude processing can interact during prospective actions. For example, if a person intends to make a meal for several persons the next week, she/he will have to keep in mind during the homework-week large dish and large food portions for this event. Here, the magnitude ‘large’ can influence the future choice for large dishes and other related large tools. This study presents the first empirical evidence supporting this hypothesis. During a prospective memory task that implied to keep in mind a future action, participants were required to use a tool after processing Arabic numbers. Small (less than 5) and large (more than 5) magnitudes were employed as cues for the initiation of the tool-use task, which required participants to use inverse pliers with a small or a large object, but only for some prospective trials. The inverse pliers were used to dissociate the hand action from the tool action with the object (for example, opening the hand produced the closing action of the tool). The results revealed that during prospective trials, number processing interacted only with the tool action toward the object and not with the hand action. Specifically, after the processing of large magnitudes, the initiation of the closing action of the tool (i.e. the opening action of the hand) was reduced. This finding is discussed in the light of theories on the emergence of semantics through tool actions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson FT, Strube MJ, McDaniel MA (2019) Toward a better understanding of costs in prospective memory: a meta-analytic review. Psychol Bull 145:1053–1081

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andres M, Ostry DJ, Nicol F, Paus T (2008) Time course of number magnitude interference during grasping. Cortex 44:414–419

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Badets A, Osiurak F (2017) The ideomotor recycling theory for tool use, language and foresight. Exp Brain Res 235:365–377

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Badets A, Pesenti M (2010) Creating number semantics through finger movement perception. Cognition 115:46–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Badets A, Pesenti M (2011) Finger–number interaction: an ideomotor account. Exp Psychol 58:287–292

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Badets A, Albinet CT, Blandin Y (2012) Sensory-based mechanism for delayed motor intention. Acta Psychol 141:205–213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2012.08.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Badets A, Koch I, Toussaint L (2013) Role of an ideomotor mechanism in number processing. Exp Psychol 60:34–43

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Badets A, Philipp AM, Koch I (2016) A review of ideomotor approaches to perception, cognition, action, and language: advancing a cultural recycling hypothesis. Psychol Res 80:1–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Badets A, Michelet T, de Rugy A, Osiurak F (2017) Creating semantics in tool use. Cogn Process 18:129–134

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bisiacchi PS, Schiff S, Ciccola A, Kliegel M (2009) The role of dual-task and task-switch in prospective memory: behavioural data and neural correlates. Neuropsychologia 47:1362–1373

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corballis MC (2018) Space, time, and language. Cogn Process 19(Suppl 1):89–92. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-018-0878-1

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Einstein GO, McDaniel MA (1990) Normal aging and prospective memory. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 16:717–726

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Einstein GO, McDaniel MA (2005) Prospective memory: multiple retrieval processes. Curr Dir Psychol Sci 14:286–290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fagioli S, Hommel B, Schubotz RI (2007) Intentional control of attention: action planning primes action-related stimulus dimensions. Psychol Res 71:22–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Faul F, Erdfelder E, Lang A-G, Buchner A (2007) G* Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behav Res Methods 39:175–191

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fitts PM (1954) The information capacity of the human motor system controlling the amplitude of the movement. J Exp Psychol 47:381–391

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Földes N, Philipp A, Badets A, Koch I (2017) Exploring modality compatibility in the response-effect compatibility paradigm. Adv Cognit Psychol 13:97–104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gergely G, Csibra G (2006) Sylvia’s recipe: the role of imitation and pedagogy in the transmission of cultural knowledge. In: Enfield NJ, Levenson SC (eds) Roots of human sociality: culture, cognition, and human interaction. Berg Publishers, Oxford, pp 229–255

    Google Scholar 

  • Harmand S, Lewis JE, Feibel CS, Lepre CJ, Prat S et al (2015) 3.3-million-year-old stone tools from Lomekwi 3, West Turkana, Kenya. Nature 521:310–315

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hommel B, Müsseler J, Aschersleben G, Prinz W (2001) The theory of event coding (TEC): a framework for perception and action planning. Behav Brain Sci 24:849–878

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Janczyk M, Pfister R, Kunde W (2012) On the persistence of tool-based compatibility effects. J Psychol 220:16–22

    Google Scholar 

  • Koch I, Keller P, Prinz W (2004) The ideomotor approach to action control: implications for skilled performance. Int J Sport Exerc Psychol 2:362–375

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larsson M (2015) Tool-use-associated sound in the evolution of language. Anim Cogn 18:993–1005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marsh RL, Hicks JL, Watson V (2002) The dynamics of intention retrieval and coordination of action in event-based prospective memory. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn 28:652–659

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Namdar G, Tzelgov J, Algom D, Ganel T (2014) Grasping numbers: evidence for automatic influence of numerical magnitude on grip aperture. Psychon Bull Rev 21:830–835

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Osiurak F, Badets A (2014) Pliers, not fingers: tool-action effect in a motor intention paradigm. Cognition 130:66–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Osiurak F, Badets A (2016) Tool use and affordance: manipulation-based versus reasoning-based approaches. Psychol Rev 123:534–568

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Osiurak F, Badets A (2017) Use of tools and misuse of embodied cognition: reply to Buxbaum (2017). Psychol Rev 124:361–368

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pfister R (2019) Effect-based action control with body-related effects: implications for empirical approaches to ideomotor action control. Psychol Rev 126:153–161

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prinz W (1990) A common coding approach to perception and action. In: Neumann O, Prinz W (eds) Relationships between perception and action. Springer, Berlin, pp 167–201

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Prinz W (1997) Perception and action planning. Euro J Cogn Psychol 9:129–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ranzini M, Lugli L, Anelli F, Carbone R, Nicoletti R, Borghi AM (2011) Graspable objects shape number processing. Front Hum Neurosci 5:147

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reason J (1990) Human error. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rizzolatti G, Arbib MA (1998) Language within our grasp. Trends Neurosci 21:188–194

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider W, Eschmann A, Zuccolotto A (2002) E-prime reference guide. PsychologySoftware Tools, Pittsburgh

    Google Scholar 

  • Suddendorf T, Corballis MC (2007) The evolution of foresight: What is mental time travel, and is it unique to humans? Behav Brain Sci 30:299–351

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CNRS, INCIA - Institut de Neurosciences Cognitives et Intégratives d’Aquitaine (UMR 5287), Université de Bordeaux, Bât. 2A- 2ème étage, 146 rue Léo Saignat, 33076, Bordeaux Cedex, France

    Arnaud Badets & Mathilde Duville

  2. Laboratoire d’Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs (EA 3082), Université de Lyon, Lyon, France

    François Osiurak

  3. Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France

    François Osiurak

Authors
  1. Arnaud Badets
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mathilde Duville
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. François Osiurak
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arnaud Badets.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

Authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standard

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee, and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration. Finally, informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Handling editor: Anna Belardinelli (Honda Research Institute, Offenbach).

Reviewers: two researchers who prefer to remain anonymous.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Badets, A., Duville, M. & Osiurak, F. Tool-number interaction during a prospective memory task. Cogn Process 21, 501–508 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-020-00983-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-020-00983-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation