Developing number–space associations: SNARC effects using a color discrimination task in 5-year-olds

• Published in: Journal of experimental child psychology 2013-12, Vol.116 (4), p.775-791
• Main Authors: Hoffmann, Danielle, Hornung, Caroline, Martin, Romain, Schiltz, Christine
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child development; Child psychology; Child, Preschool; Color Perception; Concept Formation; Development; Developmental psychology; Discriminant analysis; Discrimination (Psychology); Discrimination Learning; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Judgment; Magnitude representation; Male; Mathematics; Numbers; Number–space associations; Numerical analysis; Numerical cognition; Preschool Children; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Semitic Languages; Size Perception; SNARC; Space Perception; Symbolic numbers
• ISSN: 0022-0965; 1096-0457
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2013.07.013

•We evaluate number-space associations assessed as SNARC effects in preschoolers.•84 children were tested in the first or second term of the last preschool year.•Both a magnitude irrelevant and a magnitude relevant task were administered.•Both groups show SNARC effects in a magnitude irrelevant task.•In a magnitude relevant task SNARC effects are related to symbolic number skills. Human adults’ numerical representation is spatially oriented; consequently, participants are faster to respond to small/large numerals with their left/right hand, respectively, when doing a binary classification judgment on numbers, known as the SNARC (spatial–numerical association of response codes) effect. Studies on the emergence and development of the SNARC effect remain scarce. The current study introduces an innovative new paradigm based on a simple color judgment of Arabic digits. Using this task, we found a SNARC effect in children as young as 5.5 years. In contrast, when preschool children needed to perform a magnitude judgment task necessitating exact number knowledge, the SNARC effect started to emerge only at 5.8 years. Moreover, the emergence of a magnitude SNARC but not a color SNARC was linked to proficiency with Arabic digits. Our results suggest that access to a spatially oriented approximate magnitude representation from symbolic digits emerges early in ontogenetic development. Exact magnitude judgments, on the other hand, rely on experience with Arabic digits and, thus, necessitate formal or informal schooling to give access to a spatially oriented numerical representation.