Subitizing, magnitude representation, and magnitude retrieval in deaf and hearing adults

This study examines basic number processing (subitizing, automaticity, and magnitude representation) as the possible underpinning of mathematical difficulties often evidenced in deaf adults. Hearing and deaf participants completed tasks to assess the automaticity with which magnitude information was activated and retrieved from long-term memory (using a Stroop-like paradigm to assess congruity effects), the rep-resentational format of magnitude information (by analysis of distance and Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes effects), and the ability to rapidly enumerate small sets (subitizing). Both groups showed distance effects taken to indicate the use of a visual–spatial analog number line rep-resenting approximate quantity. Furthermore, both groups showed similar patterns of performance on the subitizing tasks and showed similar amounts of interference in an anal