Reading habits for both words and numbers contribute to the SNARC effect

This study compared the spatial representation of numbers in three groups of adults: Canadians, who read both English words and Arabic numbers from left to right; Palestinians, who read Arabic words and Arabic-Indic numbers from right to left; and Israelis, who read Hebrew words from right to left b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychonomic bulletin & review 2009-04, Vol.16 (2), p.328-331
Main Authors: Shaki, Samuel, Fischer, Martin H., Petrusic, William M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Arabs
Association Learning
Attention
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Biological and medical sciences
Brief Reports
Canadians
Cognitive Psychology
College students
Colleges & universities
Cultural differences
Data collection
Female
Field study
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Habits
Humans
Israel
Language
Male
Mathematics
Ontario
Orientation
Palestinian people
Production and perception of written language
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reaction Time
Reading
Reversal Learning
Semantics
Young Adult
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Summary:This study compared the spatial representation of numbers in three groups of adults: Canadians, who read both English words and Arabic numbers from left to right; Palestinians, who read Arabic words and Arabic-Indic numbers from right to left; and Israelis, who read Hebrew words from right to left but Arabic numbers from left to right. Canadians associated small numbers with left and large numbers with right space (the SNARC effect), Palestinians showed the reverse association, and Israelis had no reliable spatial association for numbers. These results suggest that reading habits for both words and numbers contribute to the spatial representation of numbers.
ISSN:1069-9384
1531-5320
DOI:10.3758/PBR.16.2.328