SNARC and SNAAC: spatial-numeric association of response codes and attentional cuing

Abstract

Two event-related potential (ERP) experiments were conducted to investigate spatial-numeric associations of response codes (SNARC) and attentional cuing (SNAAC). In the SNARC effect, people respond faster when making a left-hand response to report that a number is small, and when making a right-hand response to report that a number is large. Experiment 1 examined effects of SNARC-compatibility and prior response-probability in a number comparison task. Lateralized readiness potentials (LRPs) showed that SNARC-compatibility influenced an intermediate stage of response-selection, and prior response-probability influenced both earlier and later stages. The P300 ERP component was also modulated by SNARC-compatibility and prior response-probability, suggesting parietal involvement in the SNARC effect. In the SNAAC effect, attention is directed to left-side regions of space upon viewing small-magnitude numbers, and to right-side regions of space upon viewing large-magnitude numbers. Experiment 2 investigated whether ERPs evoked by peripheral visual probes would be enhanced when probes appeared in the left hemifield after small-magnitude digits and when they appeared in the right hemifield after large-magnitude digits. ERPs to peripheral probes were not modulated by numerical magnitude of digit pre-cues.