Abstract
A specific instance of the association between numerical and spatial representations is the SNARC (Spatial Numerical Association of Response Codes) effect. The SNARC effect describes the finding that during binary classification of numbers participants are faster to respond to small/large numbers with the left/right hand respectively. Even though it has been frequently replicated, important inter-individual variability has also been reported. Mathematical proficiency is an obvious candidate source for inter-individual variability in numerical judgments, but studies investigating its influence on the SNARC effect remain scarce. The present experiment included a total of 95 University students, divided into three groups differing significantly in their mathematical proficiency levels. Using group analyses, it appeared that the three groups differed significantly in the strength of their number-space associations in a parity judgment task. This result was further confirmed on an individual level, with higher levels in arithmetic leading to relatively weaker SNARC effects. To explain this negative relationship we propose accounts based on differences in access to qualitatively different numerical representations and also consider more domain general factors, with a focus on inhibition capacities.
Highlights
The way humans represent numbers has been a recurrent subject of interest both in science and education
If the impact of mathematical proficiency levels on the individual differences in SNARC effect strength is specific, we further expected that more general factors such as processing speed and working memory cannot explain the relationship between math proficiency and SNARC effect strength
The SNARC effect: group contrast analysis Following the approach suggested by Pinhas, Tzelgov and colleagues [86,87], we conducted a repeated measures ANOVA on dRT with Magnitude (Very small, Small, Intermediate, Large and Very Large) as a within subjects variable and Group as a between subjects variable
Summary
The way humans represent numbers has been a recurrent subject of interest both in science and education. The neuropsychological literature repeatedly demonstrated that children and adults with developmental dyscalculia differ from their normally achieving peers in basic numerical processing tasks [53,54,55,56,57,58] These differences are thought to arise either from differences in number magnitude representations [55,59,60,61], in accessing number magnitude representations [58,62,63,64] or in abilities depending on more domain general factors such as working memory or inhibition [65,66,67,68,69,70,71]. If the impact of mathematical proficiency levels on the individual differences in SNARC effect strength is specific, we further expected that more general factors such as processing speed and working memory cannot explain the relationship between math proficiency and SNARC effect strength
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