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It takes just one word to quash a SNARC
Martin H Fischer1, Samuel Shaki, Alexander Cruise
1School of Psychology, University of Dundee, Scotland, UK. m.h.fischer@dundee.ac.uk
Experimental Psychology
|May 19, 2009
Summary
Number associations with space, like the SNARC effect, are flexible. Recent reading direction experiences, not inherent number concepts, influence spatial-numerical associations.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Neuroscience
- Bilingualism research
Background:
- The spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect links small numbers with left space and large numbers with right space.
- Reading habits, typically unidirectional, are thought to influence this spatial-numerical association.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the flexibility of the SNARC effect in bilingual individuals.
- To determine if recent spatial experiences or long-standing directional habits shape number-space associations.
Main Methods:
- Bilingual Russian-Hebrew readers classified number parity.
- Number format alternated between written words (Cyrillic/Hebrew script) and Arabic digits.
- An auditory control experiment assessed SNARC effects irrespective of visual reading direction.
Main Results:
- Arabic digits were spatially mapped only when preceded by Russian words (left-to-right reading).
- No spatial mapping of digits occurred when preceded by Hebrew words (right-to-left reading).
- Auditory tasks showed left-to-right SNARC effects in both languages, varying in strength.
Conclusions:
- The SNARC effect is influenced by recent spatial experiences and cross-modal associations.
- Long-standing directional reading habits contribute to, but do not solely determine, the SNARC effect.
- Number-space associations are not inherent properties of number concepts themselves.
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