In a study conducted in 2016, researchers investigated how our attention and eyes react when we hear numbers. In the primary task, 17 participants had to fix the center of a screen while listening to small or large numbers, pressing a key when number 5 is prononced. The analytical approach involved comparing time-series data of eye positions when displaying small or large numbers. Confounders like right- or left-dominant eyes were controled. Among other hypothesis, the primary hypothesis which posited that the participants eyes would not maintain central fixation depending on the number they heard, was supported by the results with a not found effect size. This overview provides a concise synthesis of the most relevant results. For more details, please refer to the article page.
It is likely that showing users a small number will shift their attention to the left side of the screen space while large numbers may result in a shift to the right instead.
Myachykov, A., Ellis, R., Cangelosi, A., & Fischer, M. H. (2016). Ocular drift along the mental number line. Psychological Research, 80(3), 379–388. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-015-0731-4