TWO-DIGIT NUMBERS: HOW STRONG IS THE GLUE BINDING THEIR DIGITS?

Abstract

Are multi-digit numbers represented as a single unique stimulus or decomposed into their constituent digits in tasks of numerical cognition? If the latter, then selective attention should be possible to each of the component digits. We found that selective attention was good for both the decade and unit components of two-digit numbers, but that the latter components were processed in an integral fashion under specific contexts.