Fractions as percepts? Exploring cross-format distance effects for fractional magnitudes

•Participants completed cross-format comparisons of fraction magnitudes.•Formats included symbolic fractions and nonysmbolic ratios.•Comparisons yielded distance effects, indicating analog representation.•The cross-format nature suggests humans perceive abstract fraction magnitudes.

This study presents evidence that humans have intuitive, perceptually based access to the abstract fraction magnitudes instantiated by nonsymbolic ratio stimuli. Moreover, it shows these perceptually accessed magnitudes can be easily compared with symbolically represented fractions. In cross-format comparisons, participants picked the larger of two ratios. Ratios were presented either symbolically as fractions or nonsymbolically as paired dot arrays or as paired circles. Response patterns were consistent with participants comparing specific analog fractional magnitudes independently of the particular formats in which they were presented. These results pose a challenge to accounts that argue human cognitive architecture is ill-suited for processing fractions. Instead, it seems that humans can process nonsymbolic ratio magnitudes via perceptual routes and without recourse to conscious symbolic algorithms, analogous to the processing of whole number magnitudes. These findings have important implications for theories regarding the nature of human number sense – they imply that fractions may in some sense be natural numbers, too.