Studies in embodied cognition demonstrated larger Simon effects when participants place their hands close to stimuli in comparison to far from them. The present study investigated the cognitive mechanisms underlying the near-hand effect under the assumption of enhanced Stimulus-Response (S-R) binding or enhanced spatial processing in the near-hand space. In two within-subject experiments the S-R mapping was manipulated by instruction, and by having participants wear colored gloves that shared the color of the stimuli. In Experiment 1, participants wore gloves that matched one color of the two stimuli of the Simon task. The results revealed larger a Simon effect in the Stimulus-Hand proximal in comparison to the Stimulus-Hand distal condition. However, the gloves’ color did not impact the near-hand effect. In Experiment 2, a Hedge and Marsh (1975) reverse Simon paradigm was implemented, in which the color of the gloves was changed into a relevant task feature through an incompatible S-R color mapping. Thus, participants wore a red and a blue glove on either the left or right hand and were instructed to respond with the red glove to the blue stimulus and the blue glove to the red stimulus. The results of Experiment 2 revealed a reversed Simon effect. However, the reversed Simon effect was not modulated by the Stimulus-Hand distance. The results of both Simon experiments provide evidence for an enhanced spatial processing rather than for a modulated S-R binding process in the near-hand space.