Does the spatial-numerical association of response codes effect depend on digits' relative or absolute magnitude? Evidence from a perceptual orientation judgment task

Shuyuan Yu, Baichen Li, Shudong Zhang*, Tao Yang, Ting Jiang, Chuansheng Chen, Qi Dong

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Many previous studies have demonstrated the SNARC effecti.e., participants are faster to respond with their left/right hand to small/large numbers. However, there is a debate on whether it is based on working or long-term memory (i.e., relative or absolute magnitude). Here, we examined the flexibility of the spatial-numerical associations using orientation judgment tasks. Participants were asked to judge the orientation of a rotated frame surrounding an Arabic digit under numerical ranges 1-6, 4-9 (Experiment 1), and 1-9 (Experiment 2). The task difficulty was manipulated by rotating stimuli. We observed a significant SNARC effect for range 1-6 and a reversed SNARC effect for 4-9, regardless of the total numerical range presented in the task. Furthermore, the SNARC effect became more salient with increasing task difficulty. Our results suggest that the SNARC effect is based on the absolute magnitude of digits, supporting the long-term memory explanation.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)415-430
Number of pages16
JournalJournal of General Psychology
Volume145
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018

Keywords

  • Automatic processing
  • mathematical cognition
  • perceptual orientation task
  • SNARC effect
  • WORKING-MEMORY
  • NUMBERS
  • SPACE
  • REPRESENTATION
  • ACCOUNT
  • SPEED
  • SIZE

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