TY  - JOUR
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
A1  - Goebel, Silke M.
T1  - Direction counts A comparative study of spatially directional counting biases in cultures with different reading directions
JF  - Journal of experimental child psychology
N2  - Western adults associate small numbers with left space and large numbers with right space. Where does this pervasive spatial-numerical association come from? In this study, we first recorded directional counting preferences in adults with different reading experiences (left to right, right to left, mixed, and illiterate) and observed a clear relationship between reading and counting directions. We then recorded directional counting preferences in pre-schoolers and elementary school children from three of these reading cultures (left to right, right to left, and mixed). Culture-specific counting biases existed before reading acquisition in children as young as 3 years and were subsequently modified by early reading experience. Together, our results suggest that both directional counting and scanning activities contribute to number-space associations.
KW  - Counting
KW  - Numerical cognition
KW  - Reading direction
KW  - Number-space association
KW  - Mental Number
KW  - Cross-cultural
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2011.12.005
SN  - 0022-0965
VL  - 112
IS  - 2
SP  - 275
EP  - 281
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - San Diego
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
T1  - Multiple spatial mappings in numerical cognition
JF  - Journal of experimental psychology : Human perception and performance
N2  - A recent cross-cultural comparison (Shaki, Fischer, & Petrusic, 2009) suggested that spatially consistent processing habits for words and numbers are a necessary condition for the spatial representation of numbers (Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes; SNARC effect). Here we reexamine the SNARC in Israelis who read text from right to left but numbers from left to right. We show that, despite these spatially inconsistent processing habits, a SNARC effect still emerges when the response dimension is spatially orthogonal to the conflicting processing dimension. These results clarify the cognitive conditions for spatial-numerical mappings.
KW  - mental number line
KW  - reading habits
KW  - SNARC
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027562
SN  - 0096-1523
VL  - 38
IS  - 3
SP  - 804
EP  - 809
PB  - American Psychological Association
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
T1  - Your neighbors define your value a study of spatial bias in number comparison
JF  - Acta psychologica : international journal of psychonomics
N2  - Several chronometric biases in numerical cognition have informed our understanding of a mental number line (MNL). Complementing this approach, we investigated spatial performance in a magnitude comparison task. Participants located the larger or smaller number of a pair on a horizontal line representing the interval from 0 to 10. Experiments 1 and 2 used only number pairs one unit apart and found that digits were localized farther to the right with "select larger" instructions than with "select smaller" instructions. However, when numerical distance was varied (Experiment 3), digits were localized away from numerically near neighbors. This repulsion effect reveals context-specific distortions in number representation not previously noticed with chronometric measures.
KW  - Magnitude comparison
KW  - Mental number line
KW  - Numerical cognition
KW  - Spatial bias
Y1  - 2013
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2013.01.004
SN  - 0001-6918
VL  - 142
IS  - 3
SP  - 308
EP  - 313
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
T1  - Spatial associations in numerical cognition-From single digits to arithmetic
JF  - The quarterly journal of experimental psychology
N2  - The literature on spatial associations during number processing is dominated by the SNARC (spatial-numerical association of response codes) effect. We describe spatial biases found for single digits and pairs of numbers, first in the "original" speeded parity task and then extending the scope to encompass different tasks, a range of measures, and various populations. Then we review theoretical accounts before surveying the emerging evidence for similar spatial associations during mental arithmetic. We conclude that the mental number line hypothesis and an embodied approach are useful frameworks for further studies.
KW  - Embodied cognition
KW  - Mental arithmetic
KW  - Numerical cognition
KW  - Operational momentum
KW  - Spatial-numerical association of response codes
KW  - SNARC
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2014.927515
SN  - 1747-0218
SN  - 1747-0226
VL  - 67
IS  - 8
SP  - 1461
EP  - 1483
PB  - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
CY  - Abingdon
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pinhas, Michal
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
T1  - Heed the signs: Operation signs have spatial associations
JF  - The quarterly journal of experimental psychology
N2  - Mental arithmetic shows systematic spatial biases. The association between numbers and space is well documented, but it is unknown whether arithmetic operation signs also have spatial associations and whether or not they contribute to spatial biases found in arithmetic. Adult participants classified plus and minus signs with left and right button presses under two counterbalanced response rules. Results from two experiments showed that spatially congruent responses (i.e., right-side responses for the plus sign and left-side responses for the minus sign) were responded to faster than spatially incongruent ones (i.e., left-side responses for the plus sign and right-side responses for the minus sign). We also report correlations between this novel operation sign spatial association (OSSA) effect and other spatial biases in number processing. In a control experiment with no explicit processing requirements for the operation signs there were no sign-related spatial biases. Overall, the results suggest that (a) arithmetic operation signs can evoke spatial associations (OSSA), (b) experience with arithmetic operations probably underlies the OSSA, and (c) the OSSA only partially contributes to spatial biases in arithmetic.
KW  - Mental arithmetic
KW  - Mental number line
KW  - Operational momentum
KW  - Pointing
KW  - Spatial-numerical association of response codes effect
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2014.892516
SN  - 1747-0218
SN  - 1747-0226
VL  - 67
IS  - 8
SP  - 1527
EP  - 1540
PB  - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
CY  - Abingdon
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
T1  - Random walks on the mental number line
JF  - Experimental brain research
KW  - Mental number line
KW  - RNG
KW  - SNARC
KW  - Spatial bias
KW  - Walking
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-013-3718-7
SN  - 0014-4819
SN  - 1432-1106
VL  - 232
IS  - 1
SP  - 43
EP  - 49
PB  - Springer
CY  - New York
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Aarts, Alexander A.
A1  - Anderson, Joanna E.
A1  - Anderson, Christopher J.
A1  - Attridge, Peter R.
A1  - Attwood, Angela
A1  - Axt, Jordan
A1  - Babel, Molly
A1  - Bahnik, Stepan
A1  - Baranski, Erica
A1  - Barnett-Cowan, Michael
A1  - Bartmess, Elizabeth
A1  - Beer, Jennifer
A1  - Bell, Raoul
A1  - Bentley, Heather
A1  - Beyan, Leah
A1  - Binion, Grace
A1  - Borsboom, Denny
A1  - Bosch, Annick
A1  - Bosco, Frank A.
A1  - Bowman, Sara D.
A1  - Brandt, Mark J.
A1  - Braswell, Erin
A1  - Brohmer, Hilmar
A1  - Brown, Benjamin T.
A1  - Brown, Kristina
A1  - Bruening, Jovita
A1  - Calhoun-Sauls, Ann
A1  - Callahan, Shannon P.
A1  - Chagnon, Elizabeth
A1  - Chandler, Jesse
A1  - Chartier, Christopher R.
A1  - Cheung, Felix
A1  - Christopherson, Cody D.
A1  - Cillessen, Linda
A1  - Clay, Russ
A1  - Cleary, Hayley
A1  - Cloud, Mark D.
A1  - Cohn, Michael
A1  - Cohoon, Johanna
A1  - Columbus, Simon
A1  - Cordes, Andreas
A1  - Costantini, Giulio
A1  - Alvarez, Leslie D. Cramblet
A1  - Cremata, Ed
A1  - Crusius, Jan
A1  - DeCoster, Jamie
A1  - DeGaetano, Michelle A.
A1  - Della Penna, Nicolas
A1  - den Bezemer, Bobby
A1  - Deserno, Marie K.
A1  - Devitt, Olivia
A1  - Dewitte, Laura
A1  - Dobolyi, David G.
A1  - Dodson, Geneva T.
A1  - Donnellan, M. Brent
A1  - Donohue, Ryan
A1  - Dore, Rebecca A.
A1  - Dorrough, Angela
A1  - Dreber, Anna
A1  - Dugas, Michelle
A1  - Dunn, Elizabeth W.
A1  - Easey, Kayleigh
A1  - Eboigbe, Sylvia
A1  - Eggleston, Casey
A1  - Embley, Jo
A1  - Epskamp, Sacha
A1  - Errington, Timothy M.
A1  - Estel, Vivien
A1  - Farach, Frank J.
A1  - Feather, Jenelle
A1  - Fedor, Anna
A1  - Fernandez-Castilla, Belen
A1  - Fiedler, Susann
A1  - Field, James G.
A1  - Fitneva, Stanka A.
A1  - Flagan, Taru
A1  - Forest, Amanda L.
A1  - Forsell, Eskil
A1  - Foster, Joshua D.
A1  - Frank, Michael C.
A1  - Frazier, Rebecca S.
A1  - Fuchs, Heather
A1  - Gable, Philip
A1  - Galak, Jeff
A1  - Galliani, Elisa Maria
A1  - Gampa, Anup
A1  - Garcia, Sara
A1  - Gazarian, Douglas
A1  - Gilbert, Elizabeth
A1  - Giner-Sorolla, Roger
A1  - Glöckner, Andreas
A1  - Göllner, Lars
A1  - Goh, Jin X.
A1  - Goldberg, Rebecca
A1  - Goodbourn, Patrick T.
A1  - Gordon-McKeon, Shauna
A1  - Gorges, Bryan
A1  - Gorges, Jessie
A1  - Goss, Justin
A1  - Graham, Jesse
A1  - Grange, James A.
A1  - Gray, Jeremy
A1  - Hartgerink, Chris
A1  - Hartshorne, Joshua
A1  - Hasselman, Fred
A1  - Hayes, Timothy
A1  - Heikensten, Emma
A1  - Henninger, Felix
A1  - Hodsoll, John
A1  - Holubar, Taylor
A1  - Hoogendoorn, Gea
A1  - Humphries, Denise J.
A1  - Hung, Cathy O. -Y.
A1  - Immelman, Nathali
A1  - Irsik, Vanessa C.
A1  - Jahn, Georg
A1  - Jaekel, Frank
A1  - Jekel, Marc
A1  - Johannesson, Magnus
A1  - Johnson, Larissa G.
A1  - Johnson, David J.
A1  - Johnson, Kate M.
A1  - Johnston, William J.
A1  - Jonas, Kai
A1  - Joy-Gaba, Jennifer A.
A1  - Kappes, Heather Barry
A1  - Kelso, Kim
A1  - Kidwell, Mallory C.
A1  - Kim, Seung Kyung
A1  - Kirkhart, Matthew
A1  - Kleinberg, Bennett
A1  - Knezevic, Goran
A1  - Kolorz, Franziska Maria
A1  - Kossakowski, Jolanda J.
A1  - Krause, Robert Wilhelm
A1  - Krijnen, Job
A1  - Kuhlmann, Tim
A1  - Kunkels, Yoram K.
A1  - Kyc, Megan M.
A1  - Lai, Calvin K.
A1  - Laique, Aamir
A1  - Lakens, Daniel
A1  - Lane, Kristin A.
A1  - Lassetter, Bethany
A1  - Lazarevic, Ljiljana B.
A1  - LeBel, Etienne P.
A1  - Lee, Key Jung
A1  - Lee, Minha
A1  - Lemm, Kristi
A1  - Levitan, Carmel A.
A1  - Lewis, Melissa
A1  - Lin, Lin
A1  - Lin, Stephanie
A1  - Lippold, Matthias
A1  - Loureiro, Darren
A1  - Luteijn, Ilse
A1  - Mackinnon, Sean
A1  - Mainard, Heather N.
A1  - Marigold, Denise C.
A1  - Martin, Daniel P.
A1  - Martinez, Tylar
A1  - Masicampo, E. J.
A1  - Matacotta, Josh
A1  - Mathur, Maya
A1  - May, Michael
A1  - Mechin, Nicole
A1  - Mehta, Pranjal
A1  - Meixner, Johannes
A1  - Melinger, Alissa
A1  - Miller, Jeremy K.
A1  - Miller, Mallorie
A1  - Moore, Katherine
A1  - Möschl, Marcus
A1  - Motyl, Matt
A1  - Müller, Stephanie M.
A1  - Munafo, Marcus
A1  - Neijenhuijs, Koen I.
A1  - Nervi, Taylor
A1  - Nicolas, Gandalf
A1  - Nilsonne, Gustav
A1  - Nosek, Brian A.
A1  - Nuijten, Michele B.
A1  - Olsson, Catherine
A1  - Osborne, Colleen
A1  - Ostkamp, Lutz
A1  - Pavel, Misha
A1  - Penton-Voak, Ian S.
A1  - Perna, Olivia
A1  - Pernet, Cyril
A1  - Perugini, Marco
A1  - Pipitone, R. Nathan
A1  - Pitts, Michael
A1  - Plessow, Franziska
A1  - Prenoveau, Jason M.
A1  - Rahal, Rima-Maria
A1  - Ratliff, Kate A.
A1  - Reinhard, David
A1  - Renkewitz, Frank
A1  - Ricker, Ashley A.
A1  - Rigney, Anastasia
A1  - Rivers, Andrew M.
A1  - Roebke, Mark
A1  - Rutchick, Abraham M.
A1  - Ryan, Robert S.
A1  - Sahin, Onur
A1  - Saide, Anondah
A1  - Sandstrom, Gillian M.
A1  - Santos, David
A1  - Saxe, Rebecca
A1  - Schlegelmilch, Rene
A1  - Schmidt, Kathleen
A1  - Scholz, Sabine
A1  - Seibel, Larissa
A1  - Selterman, Dylan Faulkner
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
A1  - Simpson, William B.
A1  - Sinclair, H. Colleen
A1  - Skorinko, Jeanine L. M.
A1  - Slowik, Agnieszka
A1  - Snyder, Joel S.
A1  - Soderberg, Courtney
A1  - Sonnleitner, Carina
A1  - Spencer, Nick
A1  - Spies, Jeffrey R.
A1  - Steegen, Sara
A1  - Stieger, Stefan
A1  - Strohminger, Nina
A1  - Sullivan, Gavin B.
A1  - Talhelm, Thomas
A1  - Tapia, Megan
A1  - te Dorsthorst, Anniek
A1  - Thomae, Manuela
A1  - Thomas, Sarah L.
A1  - Tio, Pia
A1  - Traets, Frits
A1  - Tsang, Steve
A1  - Tuerlinckx, Francis
A1  - Turchan, Paul
A1  - Valasek, Milan
A1  - Van Aert, Robbie
A1  - van Assen, Marcel
A1  - van Bork, Riet
A1  - van de Ven, Mathijs
A1  - van den Bergh, Don
A1  - van der Hulst, Marije
A1  - van Dooren, Roel
A1  - van Doorn, Johnny
A1  - van Renswoude, Daan R.
A1  - van Rijn, Hedderik
A1  - Vanpaemel, Wolf
A1  - Echeverria, Alejandro Vasquez
A1  - Vazquez, Melissa
A1  - Velez, Natalia
A1  - Vermue, Marieke
A1  - Verschoor, Mark
A1  - Vianello, Michelangelo
A1  - Voracek, Martin
A1  - Vuu, Gina
A1  - Wagenmakers, Eric-Jan
A1  - Weerdmeester, Joanneke
A1  - Welsh, Ashlee
A1  - Westgate, Erin C.
A1  - Wissink, Joeri
A1  - Wood, Michael
A1  - Woods, Andy
A1  - Wright, Emily
A1  - Wu, Sining
A1  - Zeelenberg, Marcel
A1  - Zuni, Kellylynn
T1  - Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science
JF  - Science
N2  - Reproducibility is a defining feature of science, but the extent to which it characterizes current research is unknown. We conducted replications of 100 experimental and correlational studies published in three psychology journals using high-powered designs and original materials when available. Replication effects were half the magnitude of original effects, representing a substantial decline. Ninety-seven percent of original studies had statistically significant results. Thirty-six percent of replications had statistically significant results; 47% of original effect sizes were in the 95% confidence interval of the replication effect size; 39% of effects were subjectively rated to have replicated the original result; and if no bias in original results is assumed, combining original and replication results left 68% with statistically significant effects. Correlational tests suggest that replication success was better predicted by the strength of original evidence than by characteristics of the original and replication teams.
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aac4716
SN  - 1095-9203
SN  - 0036-8075
VL  - 349
IS  - 6251
PB  - American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
A1  - Sery, Noa
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
T1  - 1 + 2 is more than 2 + 1: Violations of commutativity and identity axioms in mental arithmetic
JF  - Journal of cognitive psychology
N2  - Over the past decade or so, a large number of studies have revealed that conceptual meaning is sensitive to situational context. More recently, similar contextual influences have been documented in the domain of number knowledge. Here we show such context dependency in a length production task. Adult participants saw single digit addition problems of the form n1 + n2 and produced the sum by changing bi-directionally the length of a horizontally extended line, using radially arranged buttons. We found that longer lines were produced when n1 < n2 compared to n1 > n2 and that unit size increased with result size. Thus, the mathematical axioms of commutativity and identity do not seem to hold in mental addition. We discuss implications of these observations for our understanding of cognitive mechanisms involved in mental arithmetic and for situated cognition generally.
KW  - Operand order effect
KW  - Situated cognition
KW  - Mental number line
KW  - SNARC
KW  - Operational momentum
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1080/20445911.2014.973414
SN  - 2044-5911
SN  - 2044-592X
VL  - 27
IS  - 4
SP  - 471
EP  - 477
PB  - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
CY  - Abingdon
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Pinhas, Michal
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
T1  - Addition goes where the big numbers are: evidence for a reversed operational momentum effect
JF  - Psychonomic bulletin & review : a journal of the Psychonomic Society
N2  - Number processing evokes spatial biases, both when dealing with single digits and in more complex mental calculations. Here we investigated whether these two biases have a common origin, by examining their flexibility. Participants pointed to the locations of arithmetic results on a visually presented line with an inverted, right-to-left number arrangement. We found directionally opposite spatial biases for mental arithmetic and for a parity task administered both before and after the arithmetic task. We discuss implications of this dissociation in our results for the task-dependent cognitive representation of numbers.
KW  - Mental arithmetic
KW  - Mental number line
KW  - Operational momentum
KW  - Pointing
KW  - SNARC
Y1  - 2015
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-014-0786-z
SN  - 1069-9384
SN  - 1531-5320
VL  - 22
IS  - 4
SP  - 993
EP  - 1000
PB  - Springer
CY  - New York
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
T1  - Measuring spatial-numerical associations: evidence for a purely conceptual link
JF  - Psychological research : an international journal of perception, attention, memory, and action
N2  - Previous work on spatial-numerical association (SNAs) included either spatially distributed stimuli or responses. This raises the possibility that the inferred spatial nature of number concepts was a methodological artifact. We present results from a novel task that involves two categories (spatially oriented objects and number magnitudes) and dissociates spatial classification from number classification. The results reveal SNAs without inferential limitations of previous work and point to a working memory mechanism that transfers spatial coding across categories.
Y1  - 2016
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-015-0646-0
SN  - 0340-0727
SN  - 1430-2772
VL  - 80
SP  - 109
EP  - 112
PB  - Springer
CY  - Heidelberg
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
T1  - Competing Biases in Mental Arithmetic
BT  - When Division Is More and Multiplication Is Less
JF  - Frontiers in human neuroscience
N2  - Mental arithmetic exhibits various biases. Among those is a tendency to overestimate addition and to underestimate subtraction outcomes. Does such “operational momentum” (OM) also affect multiplication and division? Twenty-six adults produced lines whose lengths corresponded to the correct outcomes of multiplication and division problems shown in symbolic format. We found a reliable tendency to over-estimate division outcomes, i.e., reverse OM. We suggest that anchoring on the first operand (a tendency to use this number as a reference for further quantitative reasoning) contributes to cognitive biases in mental arithmetic.
KW  - heuristics and biases
KW  - numerical cognition
KW  - mental arithmetic
KW  - mental number line
KW  - operational momentum
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00037
SN  - 1662-5161
VL  - 11
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
A1  - Pinhas, Michal
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
T1  - Heuristics and biases in mental arithmetic
BT  - revisiting and reversing operational momentum
JF  - Thinking & Reasoning
N2  - Mental arithmetic is characterised by a tendency to overestimate addition and to underestimate subtraction results: the operational momentum (OM) effect. Here, motivated by contentious explanations of this effect, we developed and tested an arithmetic heuristics and biases model that predicts reverse OM due to cognitive anchoring effects. Participants produced bi-directional lines with lengths corresponding to the results of arithmetic problems. In two experiments, we found regular OM with zero problems (e.g., 3+0, 3-0) but reverse OM with non-zero problems (e.g., 2+1, 4-1). In a third experiment, we tested the prediction of our model. Our results suggest the presence of at least three competing biases in mental arithmetic: a more-or-less heuristic, a sign-space association and an anchoring bias. We conclude that mental arithmetic exhibits shortcuts for decision-making similar to traditional domains of reasoning and problem-solving.
KW  - Heuristics
KW  - mental arithmetic
KW  - mental number line
KW  - operational momentum
KW  - problem-solving
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1080/13546783.2017.1348987
SN  - 1354-6783
SN  - 1464-0708
VL  - 24
IS  - 2
SP  - 138
EP  - 156
PB  - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
CY  - Abingdon
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
T1  - Implicit Spatial-Numerical Associations: Negative Numbers and the Role of Counting Direction
JF  - Journal of experimental psychology : Human perception and performance
N2  - It has been debated whether negative number concepts are cognitively represented on the same mental number line as positive number concepts. The present study reviews this debate and identifies limitations of previous studies. A method with nonspatial stimuli and responses is applied to overcome these limitations and to document a systematic implicit association of negative numbers with left space, thus indicating a leftward extension of the mental number line. Importantly, this result only held for left-to-right counting adults. Implications for the experiential basis of abstract conceptual knowledge are discussed.
KW  - negative numbers
KW  - counting direction
KW  - embodied cognition
KW  - IAT
KW  - SNARC effect
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000369
SN  - 0096-1523
SN  - 1939-1277
VL  - 43
SP  - 639
EP  - 643
PB  - American Psychological Association
CY  - Washington
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Göbel, Silke M.
A1  - McCrink, Koleen
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
T1  - Observation of directional storybook reading influences young children’s counting direction
JF  - Journal of experimental child psychology
N2  - Even before formal schooling, children map numbers onto space in a directional manner. The origin of this preliterate spatial–numerical association is still debated. We investigated the role of enculturation for shaping the directionality of the association between numbers and space, focusing on counting behavior in 3- to 5-year-old preliterate children. Two studies provide evidence that, after observing reading from storybooks (left-to-right or right-to-left reading) children change their counting direction in line with the direction of observed reading. Just observing visuospatial directional movements had no such effect on counting direction. Complementarily, we document that book illustrations, prevalent in children’s cultures, exhibit directionality that conforms to the direction of a culture’s written language. We propose that shared book reading activates spatiotemporal representations of order in young children, which in turn affect their spatial representation of numbers.
KW  - Counting direction
KW  - Cross-cultural
KW  - Mental number line
KW  - Reading
KW  - Spatial-numerical association
KW  - Preschool children
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.08.001
SN  - 0022-0965
SN  - 1096-0457
VL  - 166
SP  - 49
EP  - 66
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - New York
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
T1  - Deconstructing spatial-numerical associations
JF  - Cognition : international journal of cognitive science
N2  - Spatial-numerical associations (SNAs) have been studied extensively in the past two decades, always requiring either explicit magnitude processing or explicit spatial-directional processing. This means that the typical finding of an association of small numbers with left or bottom space and of larger numbers with right or top space could be due to these requirements and not the conceptual representation of numbers. The present study compares explicit and implicit magnitude processing in an implicit spatial-directional task and identifies SNAs as artefacts of either explicit magnitude processing or explicit spatial-directional processing; they do not reveal spatial conceptual links. This finding requires revision of current accounts of the relationship between numbers and space.
KW  - Go/no-go task
KW  - Implicit association task
KW  - Numerical cognition
KW  - SNARC effect
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.02.022
SN  - 0010-0277
SN  - 1873-7838
VL  - 175
SP  - 109
EP  - 113
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Amsterdam
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
T1  - Repeating Numbers Reduces Results: Violations of the Identity Axiom in Mental Arithmetic
JF  - Frontiers in psychology
N2  - Even simple mental arithmetic is fraught with cognitive biases. For example, adding repeated numbers (so-called tie problems, e.g., 2 + 2) not only has a speed and accuracy advantage over adding different numbers (e.g., 1 + 3) but may also lead to under-representation of the result relative to a standard value (Charras et al., 2012, 2014). Does the tie advantage merely reflect easier encoding or retrieval compared to non-ties, or also a distorted result representation? To answer this question, 47 healthy adults performed two tasks, both of which indicated under-representation of tie results: In a result-to-position pointing task (Experiment 1) we measured the spatial mapping of numbers and found a left-bias for tie compared to non-tie problems. In a result-to-line-length production task (Experiment 2) we measured the underlying magnitude representation directly and obtained shorter lines for tie-compared to non-tie problems. These observations suggest that the processing benefit of tie problems comes at the cost of representational reduction of result meaning. This conclusion is discussed in the context of a recent model of arithmetic heuristics and biases.
KW  - AHAB
KW  - cognitive bias
KW  - mental arithmetic
KW  - numerical cognition
KW  - operational momentum
KW  - SNARC
KW  - tie problems
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02453
SN  - 1664-1078
VL  - 9
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
A1  - Miklashevsky, Alex A.
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
T1  - Commentary : The Developmental Trajectory of the Operational Momentum Effect
JF  - Frontiers in Psychology
KW  - embodied cognition
KW  - operational momentum
KW  - SNARC effect
KW  - mental arithmetic
KW  - numerical cognition
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02259
SN  - 1664-1078
N1  - A Commentary on The Developmental Trajectory of the Operational Momentum Effect by Pinheiro-Chagas, P., Didino, D., Haase, V. G., Wood, G., and Knops, A. (2018). Front. Psychol. 9:1062 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01062
VL  - 9
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Felisatti, Arianna
A1  - Laubrock, Jochen
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
T1  - A biological foundation for spatial–numerical associations
BT  - the brain's asymmetric frequency tuning
JF  - Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
N2  - "Left" and "right" coordinates control our spatial behavior and even influence abstract thoughts. For number concepts, horizontal spatial-numerical associations (SNAs) have been widely documented: we associate few with left and many with right. Importantly, increments are universally coded on the right side even in preverbal humans and nonhuman animals, thus questioning the fundamental role of directional cultural habits, such as reading or finger counting. Here, we propose a biological, nonnumerical mechanism for the origin of SNAs on the basis of asymmetric tuning of animal brains for different spatial frequencies (SFs). The resulting selective visual processing predicts both universal SNAs and their context-dependence. We support our proposal by analyzing the stimuli used to document SNAs in newborns for their SF content. As predicted, the SFs contained in visual patterns with few versus many elements preferentially engage right versus left brain hemispheres, respectively, thus predicting left-versus rightward behavioral biases. Our "brain's asymmetric frequency tuning" hypothesis explains the perceptual origin of horizontal SNAs for nonsymbolic visual numerosities and might be extensible to the auditory domain.
KW  - hemispheric asymmetry
KW  - numerical cognition
KW  - SNARC effect
KW  - spatial
KW  - frequency tuning
KW  - spatial-numerical associations
KW  - spatial vision
Y1  - 2020
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14418
SN  - 0077-8923
SN  - 1749-6632
VL  - 1477
IS  - 1
SP  - 44
EP  - 53
PB  - Wiley
CY  - Hoboken
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Felisatti, Arianna
A1  - Aagten-Murphy, David
A1  - Laubrock, Jochen
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
T1  - The brain’s asymmetric frequency tuning
BT  - asymmetric behavior originates from asymmetric perception
JF  - Symmetry / Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI)
N2  - To construct a coherent multi-modal percept, vertebrate brains extract low-level features (such as spatial and temporal frequencies) from incoming sensory signals. However, because frequency processing is lateralized with the right hemisphere favouring low frequencies while the left favours higher frequencies, this introduces asymmetries between the hemispheres. Here, we describe how this lateralization shapes the development of several cognitive domains, ranging from visuo-spatial and numerical cognition to language, social cognition, and even aesthetic appreciation, and leads to the emergence of asymmetries in behaviour. We discuss the neuropsychological and educational implications of these emergent asymmetries and suggest future research approaches.
KW  - asymmetry
KW  - global
KW  - local
KW  - spatial frequencies
KW  - temporal frequencies
KW  - embodied cognition
Y1  - 2020
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3390/sym12122083
SN  - 2073-8994
VL  - 12
IS  - 12
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Felisatti, Arianna
A1  - Laubrock, Jochen
A1  - Shaki, Samuel
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
T1  - Commentary
BT  - A mental number line in human newborns
JF  - Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
KW  - spatial-numerical associations
KW  - SNARC
KW  - mental number line (MNL)
KW  - spatial frequency (SF)
KW  - temporal frequency
KW  - hemispheric asymmetry
KW  - newborns
KW  - embodied cognition
Y1  - 2020
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00099
SN  - 1662-5161
VL  - 14
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  -