How to cook a SNARC: number placement in text rapidly changes spatial-numerical associations
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Updated: Jun 18, 2026

The (Spatial) Memory Game: Testing the Relationship Between Spatial Language, Object Knowledge, and Spatial Cognition
Published on: February 19, 2018
Martin H Fischer1, Richard A Mills, Samuel Shaki
1University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom. m.h.fischer@dundee.ac.uk
Abstract:
Most theoreticians believe that reading habits explain why Western adults associate small numbers with left space and large numbers with right space (the SNARC effect). We challenge this belief by documenting, in both English and Hebrew, that SNARC changes during reading: small and large numbers in our texts appeared near the left or right ends of the lines, positioned either spatially congruent or incongruent with reading habits. In English, the congruent group showed reliable SNARC before and after reading and the incongruent group's SNARC was significantly reduced. In Hebrew the incongruent reading condition even induced a reverse SNARC. These results show that SNARC is a fleeting aspect of number representation that captures multiple spatial associations.
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