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Background: Response speed in parity judgments is faster with the left hand for small numbers (e.g., 1 or 2) and faster with the right hand for larger numbers (e.g., 8 or 9). This effect suggests that number processing can induce systematic spatial biases in bisection tasks.

Method: Neurologically healthy participants bisected visually presented stimuli with a pencil. Stimuli were long strings of uniform digits (experiment 1) or lines with single digit flankers (experiment 2).

Results: Bisection performance was biased to the left of center for strings made of digits 1 or 2 and to the right of center for strings made of digits 8 or 9. Line bisection was biased toward the flanker representing the larger magnitude, regardless of its position.

Conclusions: These results extend previous findings and support the notion of an automatic association of number magnitudes with spatial response codes. The effect may be useful for …