When A is greater than B: Interactions between magnitude and serial order

Abstract

Processing ordinal information is an important aspect of cognitive ability, yet the nature of such ordinal representations remains largely unclear. Previously, it has been suggested that ordinal position is coded as magnitude, but this claim has not yet received direct empirical support. This study examined the nature of ordinal representations using a Stroop-like letter order judgment task. If ordinal position is coded as magnitude, then letter ordering and font size should interact. Experiments 1 and 2 identified a significant interaction between letter size and ordering. Specifically, a facilitation effect was observed for alphabetically ordered sequences with decreasing font size (e.g., ). This suggests an overlap in the mechanisms for order and magnitude processing. The finding also suggests that earlier ranks may be represented as "more" in such a magnitude-based code, and vice versa for later ranks.

Keywords: Magnitude; Ordinal position; Ordinality; Primacy gradient; Serial order; Stroop task.