‹
Back
16:30 - 18:00
Parallel sessions 3
›
16:30 - 18:00
Room: C-Building - N14
Chair/s:
Krzysztof Cipora
Automatisation is crucial for humans’ everyday functioning: it helps release limited cognitive resources and relatively effortlessly process information in a repeatable manner. As a workhorse of cognition, automatisation does not always work to our advantage. If the task requires non-typical actions, automatisation misguides us. Such situations offer a valuable window into the nature of automatic processing and cognition in general. 
Several domains, including numerical cognition, investigate the automatic processing of certain stimuli to better understand information processing.
In this symposium, we look into how numerical information can be processed automatically when it is not required by task demands. In particular, we discuss how automatically processed semantic information on numbers, specifically their magnitude can be associated with space, and the limitations of these associations in individuals with different math skills levels. 
While numbers are associated with space in multiple ways (cf. Spatial-Numerical Associations), this symposium explores ways in which semantic information about numbers is triggered while not being required by task instructions, and how this information interacts with spatial processing.
First, we discuss whether the well-researched SNARC effect (i.e., association of small / large magnitude numbers with left / right response side), is triggered when asking participants to judge non-semantic features of the stimuli, such as orientation (Talk 1, V. Prpic) or colour (Talk 2, K. Cipora). We also explore whether such effects differ between the general population and professional mathematicians. 
Following up on links between automaticity of number processing, its spatial associations and their relation to mathematical expertise, we discuss (Talk 3, M. Sroka) how numerical magnitude influences font size judgments (i.e., size congruity effect), and whether these associations differ between professional mathematicians and control groups.
Going beyond traditional paradigms with participants seated in front of a computer screen, we look into whether generating random numbers, which does not require magnitude processing per se, affects spatial decision making in virtual reality (Talk 4, M. Murgia).
We conclude with a talk about breaking the automaticity of S-R mappings in the SNARC effect and whether this makes the SNARC more predictive of math abilities (Talk 5, J.-P. van Dijck).
Submission 273
Judging Colors, Processing and Spatialising Magnitudes: The SNARC Effect in the Color Judgment Task
SymposiumTalk-01
Presented by: Krzysztof Cipora
Krzysztof Cipora
Mathematical Cognition and Learning Lab, Copernicus Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
Numerical magnitude is associated with space. The Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes effect (SNARC; i.e., faster left-/right-sided responses to small/large numbers respectively) is a hallmark example of such associations. Interestingly, the SNARC effect arises not only when participants are to process magnitude of numbers (e.g., in parity judgments). Further studies revealed SNARC effect even when no number semantics need to be processed to complete the task. However, evidence from such tasks remains mixed. Especially, studies using color judgment tasks (i.e., participants judge the color of fonts of numbers being presented) brought diverging results.

In a large-scale online study (Roth et. al., 2025), we found a SNARC effect in two color judgment experiments (blue vs. yellow and light blue vs. dark blue). The group-level effects were small. An individual level analysis revealed a sizeable proportion of participants revealing a reliable reversed effect (faster right/left responses to small/large numbers, respectively).

In a follow-up study, we used the same blue vs. yellow setup, and tested professional mathematicians (i.e., individuals enrolled in doctoral studies in mathematics) and matched controls (i.e., individuals matched in their educational level). Preliminary results (with sample tested up-to-date), indicate that even though we did not find a group-level effect neither overall nor separately in any of both groups, more mathematicians than controls were characterised by a reliable reverse SNARC effect. All this indicates that numerical magnitudes are automatically processed in such setups, but the direction of spatial association of these magnitudes may differ from one revealed in other tasks.