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Is there an internal association of numbers to hands? The task set influences the nature of the SNARC effect

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Abstract

The SNARCeffect refers to the association of smaller numbers with the left and of larger numbers with the right side of extracorporal space (Dehaene, Bossini, & Giraux, 1993). We tested the assumption that, in addition to these associations, numbers are also related to participants’ hands. We report two experiments with vertically arranged buttons in which the nature of the SNARC effect depended on whether the task set was button or hand related: In the first case, a vertical location-related SNARC effect occurred, whereas in the second a handrelated SNARC effect was found. Our third experiment confirmed that space-related number representations dominate the SNARC effect when the buttons are arranged horizontally. We concluded that both effector- and space-related number representations can influence and modify the SNARC effect.

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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Potsdam, P.O. Box 60 15 53, D-14415, Potsdam, Germany

    Dana Müller & Wolf Schwarz

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  1. Dana Müller
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  2. Wolf Schwarz
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Correspondence to Wolf Schwarz.

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Müller, D., Schwarz, W. Is there an internal association of numbers to hands? The task set influences the nature of the SNARC effect. Memory & Cognition 35, 1151–1161 (2007). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193485

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