Mechanisms Research Of Visuospatial And Verbal-spatial Codings In SNARC Effect

The theoretical explanation has been questioned since Deheane et al.(1993)confirmed the existence of the spatial-numerical association of response codes effect(SNARC effect)by using a series of experiments.Among them,the visuospatial and verbal-spatial codings were more integrity and more reasonable.This study tried to use "the hierarchical view of numerical cognition" as the research framework to test the visuospatial and verbal-spatial codings of the SNARC effect.The purpose of the study is to test the explanation mechanisms of the visuospatial and verbal-spatial codings in three embodied numerical cognitions.More specifically,the three levels of numerical cognitions were grounded numerical cognition,embodied numerical cognition,and situated numerical cognition,and six sub-studies.That is to test the explanation mechanisms of the visuospatial and verbal-spatial codings in different spatial directions,different spatial polarities,different numerical notations,different reading directions,different conditions of spatial reference,and different experimental tasks.In order to achieve the purpose and studies,we design four researches and totally six experiments.(1)Experiment 1 a and 1 b,we used magnitude comparison tasks with verbal information respectively to test visuospatial and verbal-spatial codings in the Arabic numerals,simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese Numbers in horizontal and vertical SNARC effects.The results showed that visuospatial and verbal-spatial codings were observed in horizontal SNARC effect in the Arabic Numbers,simplified Chinese,traditional Chinese.But visuospatial and verbal-spatial codings was observed in vertical SNARC effect only in traditional Chinese numerical notation.(2)Experiment 2 a and 2 b,we used magnitude comparison tasks but eliminated verbal information respectively to test visuospatial and verbal-spatial codings in the Arabic numerals,simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese Numbers in the horizontal and vertical SNARC effects.The results showed that visuospatial and verbal-spatial codings were observed in neither horizontal nor vertical SNARC effects.(3)Experiment 3a and 3b respectively worked as the baseline research of experiment 1a,2a and 1b,2b.Experiment 3a and 3b,we used the classical magnitude comparison tasks respectively to test the typical SNARC effect with Arabic numbers,simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese in horizontal and vertical directions.The results showed that for the Arabic numbers,simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese numerical notations,the typical SNARC effect was observed both in horizontal and vertical directions.These results confirmed the reliability of the results of experiment 1 and experiment 2.(4)Experiment 4,we used magnitude comparison tasks with verbal information to test visuospatial and verbal-spatial codings in unimanual(left hand or right hand)SNARC effect.The results showed that visuospatial and verbal-spatial codings also applied to unimanual(left hand or right hand)reference.(5)Experiment 5a and 5b,we used classical magnitude comparison tasks and magnitude comparison tasks with verbal information to test visuospatial and verbal-spatial codings account in left-handed.The result showed that only visuospatial coding account was observed in simplified Chinese numerical notation,there were no definitive evidence to support both visuospatial coding account and visuospatial and verbal-spatial codings account in Arabic numbers and traditional Chinese numerical notations.(6)Experiment 6,both Chinese participants and Uyghur-Chinese bilingual participants operated magnitude comparison tasks with verbal information to test visuospatial and verbal-spatial codings in different reading and writing directions.Results showed that visuospatial and verbal-spatial codings was observed in the conditions when the experimental tasks used the words with the left-to-right reading and writing directions.But visuospatial and verbal-spatial codings account was not observed in the conditions when the experimental tasks used the words with the right-to-left reading and writing directions.Conclusions of the present study were showed as follow:(1)Visuospatial and verbal-spatial codings is one of the reasons of the SNARC effect.(2)Visuospatial and verbal-spatial codings was flexible,it was affected by spatial directions,numerical notations,experimental tasks,spatial polarities,reading and writing directions,and conditions of spatial reference.(3)In order to better understand the mechanism of visuospatial and verbal-spatial codings in the SNARC effect,we needs to use "the hierarchical view of numerical cognition" as the research framework.