Roth Lilly, Caffier John, Reips Ulf-Dietrich, Nuerk Hans-Christoph, Overlander Annika Tave, Cipora Krzysztof
Department of Psychology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
R Soc Open Sci. 2025 Jan 8;12(1):241585. doi: 10.1098/rsos.241585. eCollection 2025 Jan.
Numbers are associated with space, but it is unclear how flexible these associations are. We investigated whether the SNARC effect (Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes; Dehaene . 1993 . , 371-396. (doi:10.1037/0096-3445.122.3.371); i.e. faster responses to small/large number magnitude with the left/right hand, respectively) is fully flexible (depending only on relative magnitude within a stimulus set) or not (depending on absolute magnitude as well). Evidence for relative-magnitude dependency came from studies observing that numbers 4 and 5 were associated with the right in a 0-5 range but with the left in a 4-9 range (Dehaene . 1993; Fias . 1996 . , 95-110 (doi:10.1080/135467996387552). Within this Registered Report, we conducted two online experiments running Bayesian analyses with optional recruitment stopping at moderate evidence (BF above 3 or below 1/3). Experiment 1 ( = 200) replicated relative-magnitude dependency using the original stimuli. However, Experiment 2 ( = 300) additionally demonstrated absolute-magnitude dependency, while considering recent advances in SNARC research using 1-5 excluding 3 and 4-8 excluding 6. In contrast to the frequently perpetuated notion of fully flexible Spatial-Numerical Associations, some fixed relation to absolute magnitude prevails. These findings have important consequences for understanding how Spatial-Numerical Associations might support numerical processing.
数字与空间相关联，但尚不清楚这些关联的灵活性如何。我们研究了SNARC效应（反应编码的空间-数字关联；德阿纳，1993年，第371 - 396页。（doi:10.1037/0096 - 3445.122.3.371）；即分别用左手/右手对小/大数值做出更快反应）是否完全灵活（仅取决于刺激集内的相对大小），或者并非如此（还取决于绝对大小）。相对大小依赖性的证据来自一些研究，这些研究观察到在0 - 5范围内数字4和5与右侧相关联，但在4 - 9范围内与左侧相关联（德阿纳，1993年；菲亚斯，1996年，第95 - 110页（doi:10.1080/135467996387552））。在本预注册报告中，我们进行了两项在线实验，运行贝叶斯分析，并在有适度证据（贝叶斯因子大于3或小于1/3）时选择停止招募。实验1（n = 200）使用原始刺激重复了相对大小依赖性。然而，实验2（n = 300）在考虑SNARC研究的最新进展时，使用排除3的1 - 5和排除6的4 - 8，额外证明了绝对大小依赖性。与经常被延续的完全灵活的空间-数字关联概念相反，与绝对大小存在某种固定关系。这些发现对于理解空间-数字关联如何支持数字处理具有重要意义。
