The Influence Of Working Memory Updating On The Spatial-Numerical Association Of Respose Codes Effect

Numerical processing plays an important role in people's daily life.As an important indicator of numerical processing,the spatial-numerical association of response codes effect(SNARC)effect has been widely and deeply studied.It refers to the link between numerical magnitude and response side,namely,left-hand responses are faster for small numbers,and right-hand responses are faster for large numbers(Dehaene,Bossini,& Giraux,1993).Previous studies have found that the SNARC effect is flexible and context-dependent.The connection between numbers and space depends on the task situation.Therefore,the researchers assume that working memory plays an important role on the SNARC effect.In recent years,more and more researchers have focused on the influence of working memory on the SNARC effect,and found that three subsystems of working memory have effects on the SNARC effect.This study was based on the effect that the central execution system in working memory affected the SNARC effect.By controlling the value of N-back in the memory updating to set different levels of memory updating,it was discussed whether the memory updating(sub-components of the central execution system)would affect the SNARC effect under the N-back paradigm.In order to facilitated the comparison of the results,experiment 1 of this study replicated experiment 1 in the Ren(2011)study.Experiments 2 and experiments 3 increased the working memory updating rate on the basis of experiment 1.Each of the three experiments was within-subjects design.Independent variables were the relative magnitude of numbers(smaller vs.larger)and reaction hands(left hand vs.right hand).Dependent variables were response time and error rate.In experiment 1,participants were asked to compare the relative magnitude between two numbers presented serially(near 0-back),and found that there was a SNARC effect.On the basis of experiment 1,experiment 2 required participants to make judgments between the current digits and the digits presented one trial ago(1-back).It was found that the SNARC effect still existed,but the SNARC effect was smaller than experiment 1.In experiment 3,the value of N in the N-back was increased,and the participants were asked to draw comparisons between the currently displayed digits and the digits shown two trials ago(2-back).The SNARC effect disappeared.These results shown that working memory updating would affect thespatial-numerical association of response codes effect,which was related to working memory updating value.As the value of N in working memory updating increased,the SNARC effect gradually decreased and disappeared at 2-back.This indicated that high working memory updating values interfered with the SNARC effect.The reasons may be related to the finiteness of attention resources and the new numerical spatial association formed during the N-back task.This study shown that the greater the degree of working memory updating,the higher the requirement for human working memory and the greater the interference with people's perceptions.Therefore,it has important practical significance.Firstly,we can improve working memory capabilities through updating training in working memory.Secondly,to avoid the interference of the previous knowledge,teachers should choose important content to be explained firstly in a certain period of time.And students should primarily choose remember important content.Thirdly,in mathematics education,especially when studying spatial geometry involving spatial information,we can first draw a solid geometry and label the known information on the solid geometry to help us solve the solid geometry problem quickly and correctly.So as not to excessively recall the known information and imagine the spatial location to interfere with our problem solving.