1
|
Zhang P, Cao B, Li F. The role of cognitive control in the SNARC effect: A review. Psych J 2022; 11:792-803. [PMID: 35975319 DOI: 10.1002/pchj.586] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2022] [Accepted: 07/05/2022] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
The spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect, in which people respond to small numbers faster with the left hand and to large numbers faster with the right hand, is a popular topic in cognitive psychology. Some well-known theoretical accounts explaining this effect include the mental number line model, polarity correspondence principle, dual-route model, and working memory account. However, these fail to explain the finding that the size of the SNARC effect is modulated by cognitive control. Here, we propose a new account-a cognitive control-based view of the SNARC effect. This view argues that the SNARC effect is fundamentally determined by cognitive control in resolving conflicts during stimulus-response mapping. Several subcomponents of cognitive control, such as working memory, mental or task set shifting, inhibition control, and conflict adaptation, can easily modulate the SNARC effect. The cognitive control-based view can account for the flexible SNARC effect observed in diverse task situations while providing new insight into its mechanism.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ping Zhang
- School of Psychology, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China
| | - Bihua Cao
- School of Psychology, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China
| | - Fuhong Li
- School of Psychology, Jiangxi Normal University, Nanchang, China
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Núñez-Peña MI, Colomé À, González-Gómez B. The Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect in highly math-anxious individuals: An ERP study. Biol Psychol 2021; 161:108062. [PMID: 33667612 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108062] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2020] [Revised: 02/26/2021] [Accepted: 02/26/2021] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
The Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect was examined in highly (HMA) and low math-anxious (LMA) individuals performing a number comparison in an ERP study. The SNARC effect consists of faster latencies when the response side is congruent with number location in the mental number line (MNL). Despite the stronger SNARC effect in the HMA group, their responses in incongruent trials were slower than in congruent trials only for the largest numerical magnitudes. Moreover, HMAs showed a less positive centroparietal P3b component in incongruent trials than in congruent ones, but only for the largest magnitudes. Since the SNARC effect arises during response selection and P3b positivity decreases with the difficulty of decision, this result suggests that HMA individuals might find it more difficult than LMAs to control the conflict between the automatically activated location of numbers in the MNL and the response side, especially in more cognitively demanding trials.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- M I Núñez-Peña
- Department of Social Psychology and Quantitative Psychology (Quantitative Psychology Section), Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Spain; Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, Spain; Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain.
| | - À Colomé
- Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, Spain; Department of Cognition, Development and Educational Psychology (Cognitive Processes Section), Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Spain
| | - B González-Gómez
- Department of Social Psychology and Quantitative Psychology (Quantitative Psychology Section), Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Spain; Institute of Neurosciences, University of Barcelona, Spain
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Winter B, Yoshimi J. Metaphor and the Philosophical Implications of Embodied Mathematics. Front Psychol 2020; 11:569487. [PMID: 33224063 PMCID: PMC7667247 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.569487] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2020] [Accepted: 09/28/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Embodied approaches to cognition see abstract thought and language as grounded in interactions between mind, body, and world. A particularly important challenge for embodied approaches to cognition is mathematics, perhaps the most abstract domain of human knowledge. Conceptual metaphor theory, a branch of cognitive linguistics, describes how abstract mathematical concepts are grounded in concrete physical representations. In this paper, we consider the implications of this research for the metaphysics and epistemology of mathematics. In the case of metaphysics, we argue that embodied mathematics is neutral in the sense of being compatible with all existing accounts of what mathematical entities really are. However, embodied mathematics may be able to revive an older position known as psychologism and overcome the difficulties it faces. In the case of epistemology, we argue that the evidence collected in the embodied mathematics literature is inconclusive: It does not show that abstract mathematical thinking is constituted by metaphor; it may simply show that abstract thinking is facilitated by metaphor. Our arguments suggest that closer interaction between the philosophy and cognitive science of mathematics could yield a more precise, empirically informed account of what mathematics is and how we come to have knowledge of it.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Bodo Winter
- Department of English Language and Linguistics, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
| | - Jeff Yoshimi
- Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, Merced, CA, United States
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Dijck J, Abrahamse E, Fias W. Do preliterate children spontaneously employ spatial coding for serial order in working memory? Ann N Y Acad Sci 2020; 1477:91-99. [DOI: 10.1111/nyas.14430] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2020] [Revised: 05/25/2020] [Accepted: 06/15/2020] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Jean‐Philippe Dijck
- Department of Applied Psychology Thomas More University of Applied Sciences Antwerp Belgium
- Department of Experimental Psychology Ghent University Ghent Belgium
| | - Elger Abrahamse
- Department of Communication and Cognition Tilburg University Tilburg the Netherlands
| | - Wim Fias
- Department of Experimental Psychology Ghent University Ghent Belgium
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Nazari MA, Sabaghypour S, Pezhmanfard M, Azizi K, Vahedi S. The influence of children's mathematical competence on performance in mental number line, time knowledge and time perception. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2020; 85:2023-2035. [PMID: 32623512 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-020-01380-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2019] [Accepted: 06/26/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
A growing body of research suggests that space, time and number are represented within a common system. Other studies have shown this relationship is related to the mathematical competency. Here we examined the influence of the mathematical capacities of 8-12 years old children, grouped into high (n = 63) and low (n = 58) on performance in mental number line, time knowledge and time perception. The results revealed that mathematical competency influences mental number line and time knowledge, but with regard to time perception the effects were only observed in time production task. In addition, the results of correlation analysis revealed interaction between time knowledge, time production (but not reproduction) and mental number line. Finally, the findings are discussed within the framework of the recent theories regarding representation of space, time and number.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad Ali Nazari
- Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Hemmat Exp. way, Tehran, Iran. .,Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran.
| | - Saied Sabaghypour
- Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
| | - Mina Pezhmanfard
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
| | - Kiana Azizi
- Department of Psychology, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
| | - Shahram Vahedi
- Department of Educational Psychology, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
A gifted SNARC? Directional spatial-numerical associations in gifted children with high-level math skills do not differ from controls. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2020; 85:1645-1661. [PMID: 32448946 PMCID: PMC8211597 DOI: 10.1007/s00426-020-01354-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2019] [Accepted: 04/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
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.
Collapse
|
7
|
Cipora K, He Y, Nuerk HC. The spatial-numerical association of response codes effect and math skills: why related? Ann N Y Acad Sci 2020; 1477:5-19. [PMID: 32348577 DOI: 10.1111/nyas.14355] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/21/2019] [Revised: 03/27/2020] [Accepted: 04/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
Abstract
Evidence from multiple studies conducted in the past few decades converges on the conclusion that numerical properties can be associated with specific directions in space. Such spatial-numerical associations (SNAs), as a signature of elementary number processing, seem to be a likely correlate of math skills. Nevertheless, almost three decades of research on the spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect, the hallmark of SNAs, has not provided conclusive results on whether there is a relation with math skills. Here, going beyond reviewing the existing literature on the topic, we try to answer a more fundamental question about why the SNARC effect should (and should not) be related to math skills. We propose a multiroute model framework for a SNARC-math skills relationship. We conclude that the relationship is not straightforward and that several other factors should be considered, which under certain circumstances or in certain groups can cause effects of opposite directions. The model can account for conflicting results, and thus may be helpful for deriving predictions in future studies.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Krzysztof Cipora
- Faculty of Science, Department of Psychology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.,LEAD Graduate School & Research Network, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.,Centre for Mathematical Cognition, Loughborough University, Loughborough, United Kingdom
| | - Yunfeng He
- Faculty of Science, Department of Psychology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.,Student Psychological Counseling Center, Liaoning University, Shenyang, China
| | - Hans-Christoph Nuerk
- Faculty of Science, Department of Psychology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.,LEAD Graduate School & Research Network, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Explaining the SPoARC and SNARC effects with knowledge structures: An expertise account. Psychon Bull Rev 2019; 26:434-451. [DOI: 10.3758/s13423-019-01582-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
|