Crossed hands and the SNARC effect: a failure to replicate Dehaene, Bossini and Giraux (1993). Wood, G., Nuerk, H., & Willmes, K. Cortex.
abstract   bibtex   
Dehaene et al. (1993, Experiment 6) presented evidence that the mental number line is left-to-right oriented withrespect to representational associations and not with respect to left and right hands. Here we tried to replicate the study ofDehaene et al. (1993) in a larger sample (n = 32) using four different stimulus notations (Arabic numbers, number words,auditory number words, and dice patterns). As in the study by Dehaene et al. (1993), the spatial numerical association ofresponse codes (SNARC) effect was examined with an incongruent hand assignment to left/right response keys (crossedhands). In contrast to Dehaene et al. (1993), we did not observe a SNARC effect in any condition. Power analyses revealedthat n = 32 should have been large enough to detect SNARC effects of usual size. Furthermore, time-course analysesrevealed no SNARC slope in faster and slower responses, so that the null effect could not be due to relatively slowresponses with crossed hands. Joint analyses with previous data (Nuerk et al., 2005b) revealed significantly steeper SNARCslopes with congruent hand assignment, and no interaction between hand assignment and notation. Altogether, these findingssuggest that the results of Dehaene et al. (1993) only hold under specific conditions. Differences between studies arediscussed. We suggest that spatial context has an influence on the SNARC effect and that hand-based associations (and notonly representational associations) are relevant for the SNARC effect.
@article{wood_crossed_nodate,
	title = {Crossed hands and the {SNARC} effect: a failure to replicate {Dehaene}, {Bossini} and {Giraux} (1993)},
	abstract = {Dehaene et al. (1993, Experiment 6) presented evidence that the mental number line is left-to-right oriented withrespect to representational associations and not with respect to left and right hands. Here we tried to replicate the study ofDehaene et al. (1993) in a larger sample (n = 32) using four different stimulus notations (Arabic numbers, number words,auditory number words, and dice patterns). As in the study by Dehaene et al. (1993), the spatial numerical association ofresponse codes (SNARC) effect was examined with an incongruent hand assignment to left/right response keys (crossedhands). In contrast to Dehaene et al. (1993), we did not observe a SNARC effect in any condition. Power analyses revealedthat n = 32 should have been large enough to detect SNARC effects of usual size. Furthermore, time-course analysesrevealed no SNARC slope in faster and slower responses, so that the null effect could not be due to relatively slowresponses with crossed hands. Joint analyses with previous data (Nuerk et al., 2005b) revealed significantly steeper SNARCslopes with congruent hand assignment, and no interaction between hand assignment and notation. Altogether, these findingssuggest that the results of Dehaene et al. (1993) only hold under specific conditions. Differences between studies arediscussed. We suggest that spatial context has an influence on the SNARC effect and that hand-based associations (and notonly representational associations) are relevant for the SNARC effect.},
	journal = {Cortex},
	author = {Wood, G. and Nuerk, H.-C. and Willmes, K.},
	keywords = {\#nosource, SNARC effect, crossed hands, spatial frames of reference, post-hoc power estimation, ⛔ No DOI found},
}

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