Even for tasks in which magnitude is irrelevant, like parity judgement or phoneme detection, larger numbers are faster responded to with the right response key while smaller numbers are faster responded to with the left. This also occurs when the hands are crossed, with the right hand activating the left response key and vice versa. The explanation given by Dehaene and colleagues is that the magnitude of a number on an oriented mental number line is automatically activated. The mental number line is assumed to be oriented from left to right in populations with a left-to-right writing system (e.g. English), and oriented from right to left in populations with a right-to-left writing system (e.g. Iranian)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. Effects The SNARC has been observed primarily in two scenarios: attentional and oculomotor. The first of these involves people being faster to detect left probes after smaller numbers are shown and right probes after large numbers,Fischer, M. (2003). Spatial representations in number processing: Evidence from a pointing task. Visual Cognition, 10, 493-508. whereas the oculomotor effects are seen when participants look at greater speeds towards the left after detecting small numbers and to the right after detecting large ones.Fischer, M. H., Warlop, N., Hill, R. L., & Fias, W. (2004). Oculomotor bias induced by number perception. Experimental Psychology, 51, 91–97. Newer research shows a motor bias to also be associated with the SNARC effect. In an experiment conducted into random number generation, participants tended to generate numbers of a larger magnitude when turning their heads to the right, and numbers of a smaller magnitude when turning their heads to the left.Loetscher, T., Schwarz, U., Schubiger, M., & Brugger, P. (2008). Head turns bias the brain’s internal random generator. Current Biology, 18(2), R60–R62. This has been replicated using hand sizes: smaller distances between the index finger and thumb when generating a random number evoked smaller numbers, and larger spaces evoked larger numbers.Andres, M., Davare, M., Pesenti, M., Olivier, E., & Seron, X. (2004). Number magnitude and grip aperture interaction. NeuroReport, 15, 2773-2777.
Even for tasks in which magnitude is irrelevant, like parity judgement or phoneme detection, larger numbers are faster responded to with the right response key while smaller numbers are faster responded to with the left. This also occurs when the hands are crossed, with the right hand activating the left response key and vice versa. The explanation given by Dehaene and colleagues is that the magnitude of a number on an oriented mental number line is automatically activated. The mental number line is assumed to be oriented from left to right in populations with a left-to-right writing system (e.g. English), and oriented from right to left in populations with a right-to-left writing system (e.g. Iranian)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. Effects The SNARC has been observed primarily in two scenarios: attentional and oculomotor. The first of these involves people being faster to detect left probes after smaller numbers are shown and right probes after large numbers,Fischer, M. (2003). Spatial representations in number processing: Evidence from a pointing task. Visual Cognition, 10, 493–508. whereas the oculomotor effects are seen when participants look at greater speeds towards the left after detecting small numbers and to the right after detecting large ones.Fischer, M. H., Warlop, N., Hill, R. L., & Fias, W. (2004). Oculomotor bias induced by number perception. Experimental Psychology, 51, 91–97. Newer research shows a motor bias to also be associated with the SNARC effect. In an experiment conducted into random number generation, participants tended to generate numbers of a larger magnitude when turning their heads to the right, and numbers of a smaller magnitude when turning their heads to the left.Loetscher, T., Schwarz, U., Schubiger, M., & Brugger, P. (2008). Head turns bias the brain’s internal random generator. Current Biology, 18(2), R60–R62. This has been replicated using hand sizes: smaller distances between the index finger and thumb when generating a random number evoked smaller numbers, and larger spaces evoked larger numbers.Andres, M., Davare, M., Pesenti, M., Olivier, E., & Seron, X. (2004). Number magnitude and grip aperture interaction. NeuroReport, 15, 2773–2777.
R
95-110.
95–110.
R
493-508.
493–508.
R
2773-2777.
2773–2777.