Two steps to space for numbers

Frontiers in Psychology

Martin H. Fischer¹ 

关键词: spatial-nunmerical association;    SNARC;    mental number line;    numerical cognition;    spatial cognition;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00612

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

The study of spatial-numerical associations (SNAs) is an active research project that was triggered by a landmark publication reporting several simple reaction time experiments: Adults classified visually presented numbers according to their parity by using left and right response keys (Dehaene et al., 1993). The main finding was that small numbers, such as 1 or 2, were classified faster on the left side and larger numbers, such as 8 or 9, were classified faster on the right side. This specific instance of a SNA has been replicated and extended in numerous studies (recent review by Fischer and Shaki, 2014). The original interpretation of the effect assumed a “spill-over” from reading habits into the number domain but subsequent work has pushed back the time line to preschoolers, infants, and even neonates (for recent review, see Patro et al., 2014). Our own work (e.g., Shaki et al., 2009; Fischer and Shaki, 2015) confirmed that reading habits contribute to the direction and strength of SNAs but has also indicated that they are not the only and not even the strongest determinant (e.g., Fischer et al., 2010). In the following paragraphs we propose a processing principle for SNAs and describe two successive steps by which the mapping of numbers onto space might occur.

【 授权许可】

CC BY