Analysis of neuro-behavioral Discovery data on the Macintosh computer.

This paper describes a suite of routines using IgorPro, a powerful analysis and graphing software package for the Macintosh computer, to enhance the ability to analyze, manipulate, and display data recorded with the Discovery acquisition software marketed by DataWave Technologies. The routines are able to time-align fast and slow data channels, and are especially useful for analyses that involve both neural and behavioral data. The software was designed for eyeblink conditioning and vocalization experiments, but it can easily be used for analyzing other types of neurobehavioral data. The data are first prepared on the PC with routines that inspect the header of the data file and translate the data file into a compact binary format that can be read by IgorPro. An option is also available to splice out data from unnecessary portions of an intertrial interval. The new file is then put on the Macintosh computer for display and analysis by IgorPro. These routines enable both neural and behavioral data to be quickly and easily reduced, manipulated, and statistically and graphically summarized.

Attention, automaticity, and levels of representation in number processing.

Participants performed same-different judgments for pairs of numerals in 2 conditions: numerical matching (responding "same" to pairs such as 2-TWO), or physical matching (responding "different" to pairs such as 2-TWO). In most cases, a distance effect was obtained, with the different responses being slower when the 2 numbers were numerically close together (e.g., 1-2) than when they were further apart (e.g., 1-8). This indicates that numbers were automatically converted mentally into quantities, even when the participants had been told to attend exclusively to their physical characteristics. As postulated by several models of number processing, (e.g., Dehaene, 1992; McCloskey, 1992) Arabic and verbal numerals thus appear to converge toward a common semantic representation of quantities. However, the present results suggest that an asemantic transcoding route might allow for a direct mapping of Arabic and verbal numbers, perhaps by means of a common phonological representation.