Student Psychological Counseling Center, Liaoning University, Shenyang, China.
Department of Psychology, University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany.
Psychol Res. 2021 Jun;85(4):1645-1661. doi: 10.1007/s00426-020-01354-9. Epub 2020 May 24.
The SNARC (Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes) effect (i.e., a tendency to associate small/large magnitude numbers with the left/right hand side) is prevalent across the whole lifespan. Because the ability to relate numbers to space has been viewed as a cornerstone in the development of mathematical skills, the relationship between the SNARC effect and math skills has been frequently examined. The results remain largely inconsistent. Studies testing groups of people with very low or very high skill levels in math sometimes found relationships between SNARC and math skills. So far, however, studies testing such extreme math skills level groups were mostly investigating the SNARC effect in individuals revealing math difficulties. Groups with above average math skills remain understudied, especially in regard to children. Here, we investigate the SNARC effect in gifted children, as compared to normally developing children (overall n = 165). Frequentist and Bayesian analysis suggested that the groups did not differ from each other in the SNARC effect. These results are the first to provide evidence for the SNARC effect in a relatively large sample of gifted (and mathematically highly skilled) children. In sum, our study provides another piece of evidence for no direct link between the SNARC effect and mathematical ability in childhood.
SNARC（数字-空间关联反应编码）效应（即，人们倾向于将小/大量数值与左/右手联系起来）在整个生命周期中都很普遍。由于将数字与空间联系起来的能力被视为数学技能发展的基石，因此 SNARC 效应与数学技能之间的关系经常被研究。结果仍然存在很大的不一致性。一些研究测试了数学技能水平非常低或非常高的人群，发现了 SNARC 和数学技能之间的关系。然而，到目前为止，研究这种极端数学技能水平群体的研究大多是在调查具有数学困难的个体的 SNARC 效应。具有高于平均水平的数学技能的群体仍然研究不足，尤其是在儿童中。在这里，我们研究了资优儿童与正常发育儿童（总 n=165）之间的 SNARC 效应。经典和贝叶斯分析表明，这两个群体在 SNARC 效应上没有差异。这些结果首次为具有较大样本量的资优（和数学技能高）儿童的 SNARC 效应提供了证据。总之，我们的研究为儿童时期 SNARC 效应与数学能力之间没有直接联系提供了又一证据。
