Hutchinson Sterling, Louwerse Max M
Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2014 Apr;21(2):470-8. doi: 10.3758/s13423-013-0492-2.
The spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC) has shown that parity judgments with participants' left hands yield faster response times (RTs) for smaller numbers than for larger numbers, with the opposite result for right-hand responses. These findings have been explained by participants perceptually simulating magnitude on a mental number line. In three RT experiments, we showed that the SNARC effect can also be explained by language statistics. Participants made parity judgments of number words (Exp. 1) and Arabic numerals (Exp. 2). Linguistic frequencies of the number words and numbers mirrored the SNARC effect, explaining aspects of processing that a perceptual simulation account could not. In Experiment 3, we investigated whether high- and low-frequency nonnumerical words would also elicit a SNARC-like effect. Again, RTs were faster for high-frequency words for left-hand responses, with the opposite result for right-hand responses. These results demonstrate that what has only been attributed to perceptual simulation should also be attributed to language statistics.
反应编码的空间-数字关联（SNARC）表明，参与者用左手进行奇偶判断时，对较小数字的反应时间（RT）比对较大数字的更快，而右手反应则相反。这些发现已通过参与者在心理数字线上对数量进行感知模拟来解释。在三个反应时间实验中，我们表明SNARC效应也可以用语言统计来解释。参与者对数字词（实验1）和阿拉伯数字（实验2）进行奇偶判断。数字词和数字的语言频率反映了SNARC效应，解释了感知模拟理论无法解释的加工方面。在实验3中，我们研究了高频和低频非数字词是否也会引发类似SNARC的效应。同样，左手反应对高频词的反应时间更快，右手反应则相反。这些结果表明，以往仅归因于感知模拟的现象也应归因于语言统计。
