Reading space into numbers - a cross-linguistic comparison of the SNARC effect

Samuel Shaki; Martin H. Fischer

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2008.04.001

Reading space into numbers - a cross-linguistic comparison of the SNARC effect

Samuel Shaki, Martin H. Fischer

Department of Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

180 Scopus citations

Abstract

Small numbers are spontaneously associated with left space and larger numbers with right space (the SNARC effect), for example when classifying numbers by parity. This effect is often attributed to reading habits but a causal link has so far never been documented. We report that bilingual Russian-Hebrew readers show a SNARC effect after reading Cyrillic script (from left-to-right) that is significantly reduced after reading Hebrew script (from right-to-left). In contrast, they have similar SNARC effects after listening to texts in either language. These results support the view that spatially directional scanning habits contribute to the spatial association of numbers but also emphasize its flexibility.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	590-599
Number of pages	10
Journal	Cognition
Volume	108
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2008.04.001
State	Published - Aug 2008

Keywords

Mental number line
Reading direction
SNARC

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10.1016/j.cognition.2008.04.001

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title = "Reading space into numbers - a cross-linguistic comparison of the SNARC effect",

abstract = "Small numbers are spontaneously associated with left space and larger numbers with right space (the SNARC effect), for example when classifying numbers by parity. This effect is often attributed to reading habits but a causal link has so far never been documented. We report that bilingual Russian-Hebrew readers show a SNARC effect after reading Cyrillic script (from left-to-right) that is significantly reduced after reading Hebrew script (from right-to-left). In contrast, they have similar SNARC effects after listening to texts in either language. These results support the view that spatially directional scanning habits contribute to the spatial association of numbers but also emphasize its flexibility.",

keywords = "Mental number line, Reading direction, SNARC",

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note = "Funding Information: We thank Alex Cruz and Ilia Genteleb for collecting the data and Rolf Zwaan for suggesting Experiment 2. The research was sponsored by Ariel University Center of Samaria and made possible by a travel grant from the Academic Study Group (London) to M.H.F. M.H.F. is supported by 05_ECRP_FP006 and by MRTN-CT-2004-512141 as part of the EU Sixth Framework Program. ",

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N2 - Small numbers are spontaneously associated with left space and larger numbers with right space (the SNARC effect), for example when classifying numbers by parity. This effect is often attributed to reading habits but a causal link has so far never been documented. We report that bilingual Russian-Hebrew readers show a SNARC effect after reading Cyrillic script (from left-to-right) that is significantly reduced after reading Hebrew script (from right-to-left). In contrast, they have similar SNARC effects after listening to texts in either language. These results support the view that spatially directional scanning habits contribute to the spatial association of numbers but also emphasize its flexibility.

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Reading space into numbers - a cross-linguistic comparison of the SNARC effect

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Keywords

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