Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

A prominent theory posits that time and number are processed by a common magnitude system (CMS). Yet, recent studieshave revealed inconsistencies in quantity processing. For example, identical emotional stimuli evoke temporal overestima-tion, but numerical underestimation. These data discount the CMS and have led researchers to speculate about the distinctmechanisms that underlie these unique biases. In particular, differences in arousal have been posited to evoke temporaloverestimation, whereas altered attention results in numerical underestimation. In the current study, we explored adulttemporal and numerical processing under cognitive load, a task that compromises attention. Inconsistent with a CMS,baseline performance on the temporal and numerical tasks was not correlated. Similar to the work with emotional stimuli,cognitive load resulted in numerical underestimation, yet marginal temporal overestimation. Together, our data challengethe CMS, while also providing support for the role of attentional processes involved in numerical underestimation.