Researchers have found that people perceive numbers better if the numbers are not written from left to right, but from top to bottom.

To test how quickly people can process numbers with different representations, the scientists showed 73 2nd year students a pair of numbers from 1 to 9 on a monitor. Participants were required to enter a higher number using a high-performance, zero-latency gaming joystick. It turned out that participants compared numbers faster if they were split vertically, with the smaller number at the bottom. This may indicate that our mental number line actually goes from bottom to top, from small numbers to large ones.