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Multimedia Battery for Assessment of Cognitive and Basic Skills in Mathematics (BM-PROMA)
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Decomposing SNARC: How distinct spatial-numerical association components relate to specific early numerical skills in
Tânia Ramos1, Christine Schiltz1, Carrie Georges1
1Institute of Cognitive Science and Assessment, Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, University of Luxembourg, Esch-Belval, Luxembourg.
Cognition
|August 13, 2026
Summary
The Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Educational Psychology
Background:
- The Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect, linking number size to response location, is well-documented.
- Previous research on the SNARC effect's relation to mathematical performance is inconsistent.
- Potential reasons for inconsistency include analytical methods and varying mathematical skills.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between the SNARC effect and early mathematical skills in kindergarteners.
- To address inconsistencies by separately analyzing SNARC slope components: size, directionality, and intra-individual variability.
- To clarify how different aspects of the SNARC effect relate to specific mathematical abilities.
Main Methods:
- Examined the SNARC effect in 135 kindergarteners using a magnitude judgment task.
- Derived three SNARC slope indices: absolute size, directionality, and intra-individual variability.
- Assessed early numerical skills via counting, numerosity comparison, magnitude, and ordinal judgment tasks.
Main Results:
- Traditional SNARC slopes did not correlate with overall mathematical performance.
- SNARC intra-individual variability significantly predicted magnitude judgment performance.
- SNARC directionality significantly predicted ordinal judgment performance.
Conclusions:
- Decomposing the SNARC effect into distinct components is crucial for understanding its relation to mathematical skills.
- Intra-individual variability and directionality of the SNARC effect have specific, separable associations with different mathematical abilities.
- This nuanced approach may resolve previous inconsistencies in SNARC-math performance research.
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