Automaticity in processing spatial-numerical associations: Evidence from a perceptual orientation judgment task of Arabic digits in frames

Abstract

Human adults are faster to respond to small/large numerals with their left/right hand when they judge the parity of numerals, which is known as the SNARC (spatial-numerical association of response codes) effect. It has been proposed that the size of the SNARC effect depends on response latencies. The current study introduced a perceptual orientation task, where participants were asked to judge the orientation of a digit or a frame surrounding the digit. The present study first confirmed the SNARC effect with native Chinese speakers (Experiment 1) using a parity task, and then examined whether the emergence and size of the SNARC effect depended on the response latencies (Experiments 2, 3, and 4) using a perceptual orientation judgment task. Our results suggested that (a) the automatic processing of response-related numerical-spatial information occurred with Chinese-speaking participants in the parity task; (b) the SNARC effect was also found when the task did not require semantic access; and (c) the size of the effect depended on the processing speed of the task-relevant dimension. Finally, we proposed an underlying mechanism to explain the SNARC effect in the perceptual orientation judgment task.

The role of cognitive control in the SNARC effect: A review

“…Both channels are simultaneously activated. The numerical‐spatial representation can be completed through a fast unconditional route when the S–R rule is congruent (i.e., left‐hand response to small numbers and right‐hand response to large numbers); however, it needs to pass through the slow conditional route when the S–R rule is incongruent, which was solved in the response selection stage (Didino et al, 2019; Gevers et al, 2010; Gevers, Ratinckx, et al, 2006; Herrera et al, 2008; Wu et al, 2020; Yu et al, 2020).…”

“…Participants are assumed to be required to judge the parity of numbers and use the “left‐odd and right‐even” rule to make a response. When a small number (e.g., 2) is presented, it automatically activates the magnitude representation of this digit (Aleotti et al, 2020; Cooney et al, 2021; Didino et al, 2019; Gevers et al, 2010; Gevers, Lammertyn, et al, 2006; Gevers, Ratinckx, et al, 2006; Hartmann et al, 2019; Herrera et al, 2008; Sixtus et al, 2019; Vicovaro & Dalmaso, 2020; Weis et al, 2018; Wu et al, 2020; Yu et al, 2020) and spatial attention (Nikolaev et al, 2020; Rasoulzadeh et al, 2021; Sahan et al, 2022; Van Dijck et al, 2014). The numerical magnitude representation quickly activates the verbal concept of “small number” and the linked “left” concept (Gevers et al, 2010).…”

“…As the explicit task is to judge the parity of the target number, when the even number 2 is presented, the task‐related concept “even” and its related spatial concept “right,” determined by the task rules, are also activated. As shown in Figure 2, the automatically activated numerical‐spatial representation and its links are indicated by the red arrow, and the explicit task‐related numerical‐spatial representation and its links are indicated by the black arrow (Didino et al, 2019; Gevers et al, 2010; Gevers, Ratinckx, et al, 2006; Herrera et al, 2008; Wu et al, 2020; Yu et al, 2020). At this representation stage, three subcomponents of cognitive control, WM, spatial attention, and shifting, play important roles in the modulation of the automatic and rapid formation of the SNARC effect.…”

Spatial–numerical associations from a novel paradigm support the mental number line account

“…Given the aforementioned concerns, researchers have developed other tasks to more thoroughly assess whether explicit magnitude processing is necessary for the construction of d-SNAs. For example, instead of magnitude comparison, or parity, judgements, participants might complete a judgement of the perceptual, non-numerical feature of the stimulus display, such as the font colour or stimulus orientation (Fias et al, 2001;Mitchell et al, 2012;Yu et al, 2020). Such work has found that judgements of orientation (Mitchell et al, 2012;Yu et al, 2020), but not colour (Fias et al, 2001;Mitchell et al, 2012), induced d-SNAs, suggesting that in some cases, d-SNAs may occur in the absence of any explicit numerical processing.…”

Rhesus Monkeys Have a Counting Ability and Can Count from One to Six

“…Relative numerousness judgment is the simplest form of numerical competence, represented by discrimination between two quantities [3]. Subtilizing was elaborated and defined as the "immediate, correct assignation of number words to small collections of perceptual items", emphasizing that it is basically a perceptual process, rather than a cognitive one [4].…”