This was the case both when numerical information was task-relevant and when it was task-irrelevant.
Participants performed tasks in two separate contexts ('Alphabet' and 'Spatial') that alternated between SO phases (where on-screen information was task-relevant) and SI phases (where participants were required to perform the same task 'in their head', in the absence of task-relevant visual stimuli).
The early emergence of EEG DEs in all age groups in both the numerical and physical comparison tasks suggests that a refined representation of number was accessed with a similar speed in both adults and children, both when numerical information was task-relevant and when it was task-irrelevant [ 18].
To achieve this, object and spatial representations mutually inhibit one another, such that activity in the spatial-dorsal pathway is inhibited when only object information is task-relevant, and activity in the object-ventral pathway is inhibited when only spatial information is task-relevant.
The above model can explain why a reversed DE appears when numerical information is task-irrelevant, provided that the physical size difference between the digits is the same in the case of both large and small numerical distance.
When both object and spatial information are task-relevant (i.e., during a conjunction-task trial), mutual inhibition results in lower activity in color- and angle-preferred regions during conjunction-task trials compared to single-task trials because there is no dominating bias to either task region.
Second, we aimed to extend earlier findings by examining whether the speed of magnitude processing is similar in children and adults both when numerical information is task-relevant (numerical comparison task of the Stroop paradigm) and when it is task-irrelevant (physical comparison task of the Stroop paradigm).
A part of this conceptual knowledge is the phonological specification of the object's possible names (see Meyer, Belke, Telling, & Humphreys, 2007, for an example of how phonological information is activated even during a visual search task for which such information is task-irrelevant).
Moreover, pooling disparate information was an onerous task, and no firm had the desire to expend resources on such an effort.
The primary model was estimated with complete cases for each set of tasks, meaning that information was reported on each task within a set.
Information was gathered about tasks and responsibilities during the clerkships.
