It Takes Just One Word to Quash a SNARC

Fischer, Martin H.; Shaki, Samuel; Cruise, Alexander

doi:10.1027/1618-3169.56.5.361

Cited by 86 publications

(89 citation statements)

References 21 publications

(35 reference statements)

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“…This effect seems to depend on relative, and not absolute, numerical magnitude, such that the same numbers (e.g., 4 and 5) can be associated with left-hand responses, when used as the smallest numbers in the presented range (e.g., 4-9), and with the right-hand responses, when used as the largest numbers in the presented range (e.g., 0-5; Dehaene et al, 1993;Fias, Brysbaert, Geypens, & d'Ydewalle, 1996). Moreover, the SNARC effect can be easily reversed (or 4 NUMBER RANGE EFFECT diluted) by manipulating the task instructions (e.g., Bächtold, Baumüller, & Brugger, 1998), incompatible spatial mapping/positioning (e.g., Fischer, Mills, & Shaki, 2010;Fischer, Shaki, & Cruise, 2009;Notebaert, Gevers, Verguts, & Fias, 2006;Shaki & Fischer, 2008) and memory requirements or load (e.g., Lindemann, Abolafia, Pratt, & Bekkering, 2008;2011;van Dijck, Gevers, & Fias, 2009). …”

Section: Number Range Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Future studies can test whether such effects can be found at the level of a single trial (cf. Fischer et al, 2009) or whether they are constrained to manipulations made at the block level. Additional work can focus on the question of exactly how malleable the properties of the mental number line can be, depending on the distributional properties of the numbers processed for a particular task.…”

Section: Number Range Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Zooming in and out from the mental number line: Evidence for a number range effect.

Pinhas¹,

Pothos²,

Tzelgov³

2013

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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This is the unspecified version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Extensive evidence shows how number representations can be changed by certain contexts or task requirements. It is worth noting that the insight of a malleable mental number line sharply contrasts with a prior intuition that numbers would be represented in a purely propositional way. Permanent repository linkResearchers have identified some key characteristics for the mental representation of numbers, such as condensed scaling and left-to-right spatial orientation. The relevant empirical evidence concerns three effects: the distance effect (i.e., better discrimination of numbers that are further apart than when they are close), the size effect (i.e., better performance for small than large numbers; Moyer & Landauer, 1967) In contrast, the flexibility of the SNARC effect has been repeatedly observed. This effect seems to depend on relative, and not absolute, numerical magnitude, such that the same numbers (e.g., 4 and 5) can be associated with left-hand responses, when used as the smallest numbers in the presented range (e.g., 4-9), and with the right-hand responses, when used as the largest numbers in the presented range (e.g., 0-5; Dehaene et al., 1993;Fias, Brysbaert, Geypens, & d'Ydewalle, 1996). Moreover, the SNARC effect can be easily reversed (or In line with these findings, it seems that short-term numerical representations are constructed online, during task execution, in accordance with the specific characteristics of the task at hand. Therefore, the same numbers can be considered small or large and evoke contrasting directions in space, depending on the putative mental number line, which is generated by the task. Such "working representations" appear to be particularly affected by task demands when people are intentionally asked to process numerical magnitudes, compared to situations in which the numerical magnitudes are processed automatically (i.e., not as part of the task requirements, e.g., Tzelgov, 1997;Tzelgov & Ganor-Stern, 2005).However, even in the latter case, there seems to be a context-dependent ranking of numerical magnitudes, at least in the sense of which number is automatically perceived to be the smallest (Pinhas & Tzelgov, 2012). Consistently with these ideas, a recent model by Cohen Kadosh and Walsh (2009) proposed that numerical processing starts with non-abstract numerical representations in the parietal cortex. These representations are assumed to be automatic in the sense that they are not affected by task demands. At a later stage, abstract representations may emerge in accordance with the task requirements in the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with training effects, working memory and strategy application (see also Gilbert & Burgess 2008;Tudusciuc & Nieder, 2007).The objective of the present study was to explore whether the granularity or resolution of the evoked mental number line can also be changed by context. Consider a numerical comparison task...

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Section: Number Range Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Number Range Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Zooming in and out from the mental number line: Evidence for a number range effect.

Pinhas¹,

Pothos²,

Tzelgov³

2013

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

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“…Unfortunately for studies of SNARC-like effects in sequence-space synaesthesia, it has been increasingly argued that spatial stimulus-response congruity effects, such as the SNARC effect, may reflect intentional, short-term and task-specific spatial associations, which may even be verbally mediated, rather than reflect the detailed layout of persistent automatised spatial associations (Caessens et al, 2005;Fischer, 2006;Fischer et al, 2009Fischer et al, , 2010Gevers et al, 2006;Shaki and Fischer, 2008;Proctor and Vu, 2002;van Dijck et al, 2009).…”

Section: Concerns With the Evidence From Snarc Effects: Automatic Spamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Second, even to the extent that non-verbal spatial representations are involved in the SNARC effect, these appear to be highly flexible and context sensitive (e.g., Fischer et al, 2010;Fischer et al, 2009;Shaki and Fischer, 2008). They may also be mediated by standard processes of visuospatial imagery.…”

Section: Concerns With the Evidence From Snarc Effects: Automatic Spamentioning

confidence: 99%

Automaticity in sequence-space synaesthesia: A critical appraisal of the evidence

Price

Mattingley

2013

Cortex

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For many people, thinking about certain types of common sequence -for example calendar units or numerals -elicits a vivid experience that the sequence members occupy spatial locations which are in turn part of a larger spatial pattern of sequence members.Recent research on these visuospatial experiences has usually considered them to be a variety of synaesthesia, and many studies have argued that this sequence-space synaesthesia is an automatic process, consistent with a traditional view that automaticity is a key property of synaesthesia. In this review we present a critical discussion of data from the three main paradigms that have been used to argue for automaticity in sequencespace synaesthesia, namely SNARC-like effects (Spatial-Numerical-Association-ofResponse-Codes), spatial cueing, and perceptual incongruity effects. We suggest that previous studies have been too imprecise in specifying which type of automaticity is implicated. Moreover, mirroring previous challenges to automaticity in other types of synaesthesia, we conclude that existing data are at best ambiguous regarding the automaticity of sequence-space synaesthesia, and may even be more consistent with the effects of controlled (i.e., non-automatic) processes. This lack of strong evidence for automaticity reduces the temptation to seek explanations of sequence-space synaesthesia in terms of processes mediated by qualitatively abnormal brain organisation or mechanisms. Instead, more parsimonious explanations in terms of extensively rehearsed associations, established for example via normal processes of visuospatial imagery, are convergent with arguments that synaesthetic phenomena are on a continuum with normal cognition.

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“…This, of course, depends on the degree of proficiency in the second language . Moreover, in research on bilingual people whose two languages have opposite writing direction (for instance, Hebrew and Russian), an oscillating change of the SNARC effect is observed when participants are asked to change the reading direction of texts expressed in languages with opposite writing directions (Shaki and Fischer 2008;Fischer et al 2009). …”

Section: The Cultural Factors Of the Flexibility Of Snarc Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Representational Structures of Arithmetical Thinking: Part I

Krysztofiak

2015

Axiomathes

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In this paper, representational structures of arithmetical thinking, encoded in human minds, are described. On the basis of empirical research, it is possible to distinguish four types of mental number lines: the shortest mental number line, summation mental number lines, point-place mental number lines and mental lines of exact numbers. These structures may be treated as generative mechanisms of forming arithmetical representations underlying our numerical acts of reference towards cardinalities, ordinals and magnitudes. In the paper, the theoretical framework for a formal model of mental arithmetical representations is constructed. Many competitive conceptions of the mental system responsible for our arithmetical thinking may be unified within the presented framework. The paradigm underlying our research may be interpreted philosophically as a neo-Kantian approach to modeling the mind's representational structures.

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It Takes Just One Word to Quash a SNARC

Cited by 86 publications

References 21 publications

Zooming in and out from the mental number line: Evidence for a number range effect.

Zooming in and out from the mental number line: Evidence for a number range effect.

Automaticity in sequence-space synaesthesia: A critical appraisal of the evidence

Representational Structures of Arithmetical Thinking: Part I

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