Abstract
A cornerstone of contemporary research in numerical cognition is the surprising link found between numbers and space. In particular, people react faster and more accurately to small numbers with a left-hand key and to large numbers with a right-hand key. Because this contingency is found in a variety of tasks, it has been taken to support the automatic activation of magnitude as well as the notion of a mental number line arranged from left to right. The present study challenges the presence of a link between left-right location, on the one hand, and small-large number, on the other hand. We show that a link exists between space and relative magnitude, a relationship that might or might not be unique to numbers.
Article PDF
References
Dedekind, R. (1963). Essays on the theory of numbers. New York: Dover. (Original work published 1901)
Dehaene, S., & Akhavein, R. (1995). Attention, automaticity, and levels of representation in number processing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 21, 314–326.
Dehaene, S., Bossini, S., & Giraux, P. (1993). The mental representation of parity and number magnitude. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 122, 371–396.
Fias, W., Brysbaert, M., Geypens, F., & d’Ydewalle, G. (1996). The importance of magnitude information in numerical processing: Evidence from the SNARC effect. Mathematical Cognition, 2, 95–110.
Fischer, M. H. (2001). Number processing induces spatial performance biases. Neurology, 57, 822–826.
Fischer, M. H. (2003). Spatial representation in number processing: Evidence from a pointing task. Visual Cognition, 10, 493–508.
Fischer, M. H. (2006). The future for SNARC could be stark. Cortex, 42, 1066–1068.
Fischer, M. H., & Coeman, P. (2005, July). Moving the mental number line: Rapid effects of training. Poster session presented at the European Summer School on “Neuroscience of Number Processing”, Erice, Italy.
Fitousi, D., Shaki, S., & Algom, D. (2009). The role of parity, physical size, and magnitude in numerical cognition: The SNARC effect revisited. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 71, 143–155.
Frege, G. (1884). Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik. Jena: Hermann Pohle.
Gevers, W., Verguts, T., Reynvoet, B., Caessens, B., & Fias, W. (2006). Numbers and space: A computational model of the SNARC effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 32, 32–44.
Ito, Y., & Hatta, T. (2004). Spatial structure of quantitative representation of numbers: Evidence from the SNARC effect. Memory & Cognition, 32, 662–673.
Keus, I. M., & Schwarz, W. (2005). Searching for the functional locus of the SNARC effect: Evidence for a response-related origin. Memory & Cognition, 33, 681–695.
Lorch, R. F., Jr., & Myers, J. L. (1990). Regression analysis of repeated measures data in cognition research. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 16, 149–157.
Peano, G. (1967). The principles of arithmetic, presented by a new method. In J. van Heijenoort (Ed.), A source book in mathematical logic, 1879-1931 (pp. 83–97). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Original work published 1889)
Proctor, R. W., & Cho, Y. S. (2006). Polarity correspondence: A general principle for performance of speeded binary classification tasks. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 416–442.
Russell, B. (1919). Introduction to mathematical philosophy. London: Allen & Unwin.
Schwarz, W., & Keus, I. M. (2004). Moving the eyes along the mental number line: Comparing SNARC effects with saccadic and manual responses. Perception & Psychophysics, 66, 651–664.
Verguts, T., Fias, W., & Stevens, M. (2005). A model of exact smallnumber representation. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12, 66–80.
Wood, G., Nuerk, H. C., & Willmes, K. (2006). Crossed hands and the SNARC effect: A failure to replicate Dehaene, Bossini, and Giraux (1993). Cortex, 42, 1069–1079.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nathan, M.B., Shaki, S., Salti, M. et al. Numbers and space: Associations and dissociations. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 16, 578–582 (2009). https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.3.578
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.16.3.578