Comparing Implicit and Synaesthetic Number–Space Associations: Visuospatial and Verbal Spatial–Numerical Associations of Response Codes

Abstract

In the theory of the mental number line, number, and space are implicitly associated, giving rise to the spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect, in which smaller numbers are more readily associated with the left side of space and larger numbers with the right, during a parity judgement task. Others, however, have argued that the SNARC effect is flexible and better explained by verbal rather than spatial associations. A few single-case studies on the SNARC effect have tested number-space synaesthetes, who make explicit associations between number and space. Here, we present data from experiments conducted on groups of synaesthetes and nonsynaesthetes on the classic SNARC parity judgement task with lateralized response keys and a modified version in which they responded to labels appearing on screen. Synaesthetes' behaviour was expected to differ from nonsynaesthetes' behaviour due to the explicit, fixed nature of their number-space associations, but both experiments show the two groups behaving in the same way, indicating that parity judgement tasks may not be tapping the same representation of number that gives rise to synaesthetic number-space experiences.