Is more always up? Evidence for a preference of hand-based associations over vertical number mappings

ABSTRACT

It has been argued that the association of numbers and vertical space plays a fundamental role for the understanding of numerical concepts. However, convincing evidence for an association of numbers and vertical bimanual responses is still lacking. The present study tests the vertical Spatio-Numerical-Association-of-Response-Codes (SNARC) effect in a number classification task by comparing anatomical hand-based and spatial associations. A mixed effects model of linear spatial-numerical associations revealed no evidence for a vertical but clear support for an anatomical SNARC effect. Only if the task requirements prevented participants from using a number-hand association due to frequently alternating hand-to-button assignments, numbers were associated with the vertical dimension. Taken together, the present findings question the importance of vertical associations for the conceptual understanding of numerical magnitude as hypothesised by some embodied approaches to number cognition and suggest a preference for ego- over geocentric reference frames for the mapping of numbers onto space.

KEYWORDS:

• SNARC effect
• embodied numerosity
• numerical cognition

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Oliver Lindemann http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3789-5373

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research [Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, NWO; project number 411-10-908].