Automaticity of two-digit numbers

Automatic processing of 2-digit numbers was demonstrated using the size congruency effect (SiCE). The SiCE indicates the processing of the irrelevant (numerical) dimension when 2 digits differing both numerically and physically are compared on the relevant (physical) dimension. The SiCE was affected by the compatibility between unit and decade digits but was unaffected by the global magnitude of the numbers. Together these results suggest automatic processing of the magnitudes of the components of the 2-digit numbers but not of whole numbers. Finally, the SiCE was affected more by the magnitude of the decade digits compared with the unit digits, indicating that the syntactic roles of the digits were represented. The implications of these results for understanding the numerical representations are discussed.