The SNARC effect indicates that numbers are mapped from left to right as in a mental number line. Accumulating evidence suggests that it could be attributed both to the magnitude or to the order of numbers, but the role of these two aspects has not yet been disambiguated since the two are tightly correlated. This study investigated the influence of order and magnitude in the SNARC effect using playing cards as stimuli. While most people organize cards in ascending order (AO), according to the Western reading-writing direction, a minority of people arrange them in descending order (DO). In this regard DO people should spontaneously associate low magnitude cards (e.g., 2) to the right, and high magnitude cards (e.g., 6) to the left. Therefore, in DO individuals, cards’ order would elicit a spatial mapping opposite to the canonical mapping of quantities (i.e., mental number line). In Experiment 1, DO participants performed magnitude classification on simple numerals and on playing cards, showing a regular SNARC effect when classifying numbers and no significant effect when classifying cards. Conversely, in Experiment 2, AO participants showed a regular SNARC effect when classifying both numbers and cards. In Experiment 3, a separate group of DO participants was recruited and tested online to replicate Experiment 1 and clarify the occurrence of spatial associations in card classification. Results indicated that DO participants showed regular SNARC effects both in number and card classification, suggesting that magnitude played a key role overruling the order of cards. This is apparently in contradiction with the view that specific experiences with ordered stimuli should determine the direction of an association.

According to the neural overlap hypothesis (Fias et al., 2001) magnitude information is automatically extracted from digits when there is a sufficient degree of neural overlap between structures dedicated to the processing of relevant and irrelevant information. Specifically, since numbers are processed in parietal areas, processing a visual feature with high parietal involvement (orientation) should interact with number magnitude, while this interaction should be limited when processing features with minimal parietal involvement (colour). This seems to be confirmed by the fact that previous studies detected a SNARC effect with orientation judgment but very limited evidence was found with colour judgment. Although the neural overlap hypothesis has been highly influential, only a few studies attempted at replicating the original findings. In the present study, we aimed at replicating a key experiment introduced by Fias and colleagues (line orientation judgment), testing both digits and letters. Based on the neural overlap hypothesis, a SNARC effect should be found only with digits while it should be weak or absent with letters, due to different degrees of neural overlap with parietal areas. In two experiments, by testing participants both online and in the lab, we consistently failed to detect a SNARC effect for both numbers and letters. Aggregated analysis on N = 155 participants confirmed the absence of the effect. Our evidence cast doubts on the neural overlap hypothesis and suggest that a small SNARC effect might be detected in non-semantic tasks only by testing very large samples, as recently demonstrated with colour judgment.

When asked to produce random numbers individuals generate more small numbers than large ones, a phenomenon known as “Small Number Bias” (SNB; Loetscher Brugger, 2007). This bias has been associated with a spatial preference known as “pseudoneglect,” where attention is biased towards the left side of the mental number line during numerical processing (Loetscher Brugger, 2009). Another potential explanation for SNB is the higher frequency of use of small compared to large numbers in daily life (Dehaene Mehler, 1992). This study aims to determine which of these two explanations better accounts for SNB. Participants were asked to generate random numbers from 1 to 12 while viewing either a regular or an inverted clockface. On a regular clockface smaller numbers are on the right, whereas on an inverted clockface they are on the left. Both theories predict SNB for the inverted clockface. However, for the regular clockface, frequency of use would predict SNB, while pseudoneglect would predict a bias towards larger numbers. Results showed SNB in the inverted clockface condition, but no bias in the regular clockface condition. These findings suggest that SNB arises when pseudoneglect and frequency of use align but is absent when they conflict. Overall, the results indicate that both pseudoneglect and frequency of use contribute to SNB in some degrees.

Spatial-numerical associations have been widely studied in the last 2 decades and have brought important advancements for embodied cognition theories on knowledge representation. Over the years, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance has contributed to disseminate seminal studies highlighting the role of grounded invariants (e.g., vertical spatial-numerical association of response codes, Hartmann et al., 2014), cultural habits (e.g., reading/writing direction, Shaki & Fischer, 2012; Shaki et al., 2012; Zohar-Shai et al., 2017), and situated constraints (e.g., mirror numbers, Marzola & Cohen, 2023; alternative number arrangements, Mingolo et al., 2021) on numerical representation. In this perspective article, we briefly review the contribution of these articles in the field, and we propose a broad overview of how these findings fit into grounded, embodied, and situated perspectives on numerical cognition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

In order to frame excessive smartphone use as an addiction, it is important to understand whether this behavior determines abstinence symptoms and which damaging effect it has on emotions and cognition. However, an appropriate tool to assess the presence of smartphone abstinence symptoms is still lacking. In the present study, we propose a scale that is specifically developed to assess the psychological state deriving from smartphone abstinence: The Abstinence from Smartphone Scale (ABSS-10). The aim of this work is to validate ABSS-10 and to investigate its relevance in the context of smartphone addiction. Two studies were conducted to explore ABSS-10 psychometric properties, focusing on discriminant validity, and its relationship with smartphone dependence and emotional attachment. In Study 1, university students were administered the ABSS-10 two times during a two and a half-hour long smartphone restriction period. In Study 2, the scale was administered three times during a five-hour long smartphone restriction period. General state anxiety and smartphone dependence scales were also administered. The findings reveal that ABSS-10 effectively differentiates smartphone abstinence symptoms from general state anxiety and dependence. Moreover, results show that the scale detects changes in abstinence symptoms scores during a five-hour restriction period. The scale’s utility in both research and practical settings is discussed, highlighting its potential contributions to understanding the psychological dynamics of smartphone use and abstinence. The present work suggests that ABSS-10 is a robust tool for research on the psychological effects of smartphone usage.

The Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect consists in faster left-/right-key responses to small/large numbers. (Bächtold et al., Neuropsychologia 36:731–735, 1998) reported the reversal of this effect after eliciting the context of a clockface—where small numbers are represented on the right and large numbers on the left. The present study investigates how the salience of a particular spatial-numerical context, which reflects the level of activation of the context in working memory, can alter Spatial Numerical Associations (SNAs). Four experiments presented the clockface as context and gradually increased its salience using different tasks. In the first two experiments (low salience), the context was presented at the beginning of the experiment and its retrieval was not required to perform the tasks (i.e., random number generation in Experiment 1, magnitude classification and parity judgement in Experiment 2). Results revealed regular left-to-right SNAs, unaffected by the context. In Experiment 3 (medium salience), participants performed magnitude classification and parity judgement (primary task), and a Go/No-go (secondary task) which required the retrieval of the context. Neither the SNARC effect nor a reversed-SNARC emerged, suggesting that performance was affected by the context. Finally, in Experiment 4 (high salience), the primary task required participants to classify numbers based on their position on the clockface. Results revealed a reversed SNARC, as in (Bächtold et al., Neuropsychologia 36:731–735, 1998). In conclusion, SNARC is disrupted when the context is retrieved in a secondary task, but its reversal is observed only when the context is relevant for the primary task.

The Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect is evidence of an association between number magnitude and response position, with faster left-key responses to small numbers and faster right-key responses to large numbers. Similarly, recent studies revealed a SNARC-like effect for tempo, defined as the speed of an auditory sequence, with faster left-key responses to slow tempo and faster right-key responses to fast tempo. In order to address some methodological issues of previous studies, in the present study we designed an experiment to investigate the occurrence of a SNARC-like effect for tempo, employing a novel procedure in which only two auditory beats in sequence with a very short interstimulus interval were used. In the "temporal speed" condition, participants were required to judge the temporal speed (slow or fast) of the sequence. In the "interval duration" condition, participants were required to judge the duration of the interval between the two beats (short or long). The results revealed a consistent SNARC-like effect in both conditions, with faster left-hand responses to slow tempo and faster right-hand responses to fast tempo. Interestingly, the consistency of the results across the two conditions indicates that the direction of the SNARC-like effect was influenced by temporal speed even when participants were explicitly required to focus on interval duration. Overall, the current study extends previous findings by employing a new paradigm that addresses potential confounding factors and strengthens evidence for the SNARC-like effect for tempo.

Visual hallucinations are prevalent, potentially disabling symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease. Multiple impairments in bottom-up sensory processing and top-down perceptual modulation are implicated in the pathophysiology of these phenomena. In healthy individuals, visual illusions are elicited by illusory figures through parametric manipulations of geometrical configurations, contrast, color, or spatial relationships between stimuli. These illusory percepts provide insight on the physiologic processes subserving conscious and unconscious perception. In this exploratory, cross-sectional, controlled study, perceptual performance on illusory figures was assessed on 11 PD patients with hallucinations, 10 non-hallucinating PD patients, and 10 age-matched healthy individuals. In order to characterize potential neural substrates of perceptual performances, patients’ brain metabolic patterns on FDG PET were also analyzed. Illusions relying on attentional modulation and global perception were attenuated in PD patients without hallucinations. This pattern was no longer recognizable in hallucinating patients. Conversely, illusory effects normally counteracted by figure to background segregation and overlapping figures recognition were enhanced in PD patients with hallucinations. FDG PET findings further suggest that perceptual differences between PD patients might be linked to abnormal top-down perceptual modulation.

Aims: The present study aims to investigate the occurrence of the serial position effect in the recall of items verbally presented in three different contexts. Background: The serial position effect has been studied with both verbal ( e.g ., words) and visuospatial ( e.g ., locations) stimuli but not with verbal-spatial stimuli ( i.e ., spatial description of an environment). In particular, a spatial description of an environment has both spatial information and a meaningful context. Objective: The objective of the present study is to determine whether the use of different contexts (namely, a classic word list, a spatial description of a room, and a narrative without spatial information) can alter the serial position effect. Methods: Depending on the condition, participants were exposed to a) a list of objects, b) a spatial description of a room containing the same objects; c) a narrative presenting the same objects in lack of spatial information. After this learning phase, participants performed a recognition task. Results: The recognition task revealed different accuracy distributions in the three conditions. In particular, in the spatial description condition, the accuracy distribution did not change across the item position. Conclusion: This result is in line with previous studies with visuospatial stimuli. Thus, it seems that spatial descriptions are a particular kind of verbal stimuli, which are encoded similarly to visuospatial stimuli. Overall, these outcomes support the idea that spatial descriptions elicit a spatial representation, which enhances item retention and eliminates the serial position effect.

The Spatial–TEmporal Association of Response Codes (STEARC) effect (Ishihara et al. in Cortex 44:454–461, 2008) is evidence that time is spatially coded along the horizontal axis. It consists in faster left-hand responses to early onset timing and faster right-hand responses to late onset timing. This effect has only been established using tasks that directly required to assess onset timing, while no studies investigated whether this association occurs automatically in the auditory modality. The current study investigated the occurrence of the STEARC effect by using a procedure similar to Ishihara and colleagues. Experiment 1 was a conceptual replication of the original study, in which participants directly discriminated the onset timing (early vs. late) of a target sound after listening to a sequence of auditory clicks. This experiment successfully replicated the STEARC effect and revealed that the onset timing is mapped categorically. In Experiments 2, 3a and 3b participants were asked to discriminate the timbre of the stimuli instead of directly assessing the onset timing. In these experiments, no STEARC effect was observed. This suggests that the auditory STEARC effect is only elicited when time is explicitly processed, thus questioning the automaticity of this phenomenon.

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Previous literature on the spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect examined which factors modulate spatial-numerical associations. Recently, the role of order in the SNARC effect has been debated, and further research is necessary to better understand its contribution. The present study investigated how the order elicited by the context of the stimuli and by task demands interact. Across three experiments, we presented numbers in the context of a mobile phone keypad, an overlearned numerical display in which the ordinal position of numbers differs from the mental number line. The experiments employed three tasks with different levels of consistency with the order elicited by the context. In Experiment 1, participants judged numbers based on their spatial position on the keypad, and we found a spatial association consistent with the keypad configuration, indicating that the spatial association is driven both by the context and by the task when they consistently elicit the same order. In Experiment 2a, participants performed a magnitude classification task, and results revealed a lack of spatial associations, suggesting a conflict between the orders elicited by the context and by the task. In Experiment 2b, participants performed a parity judgment task, and the results revealed a SNARC effect, suggesting that the order elicited by the context did not modulate the spatial association. Overall, three different tasks gave rise to three different results. This shows that the context alone is not sufficient in modulating spatial-numerical associations but that the consistency between the orders elicited by context and task demands is a key factor. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

In a recent paper by Casasanto and Pitt (2019), the authors addressed a debate regarding the role of order and magnitude in SNARC and SNARC-like effects. Their position is that all these effects can be explained by order, while magnitude could only account for a subset of evidence. Although we agree that order can probably explain the majority of these effects, in this commentary we argue that magnitude is still relevant, since there is evidence that cannot be explained based on ordinality alone. We argue that SNARC-like effects can occur for magnitudes not clearly characterized by overlearned ordinality and that magnitude can prevail on order, when the two are pitted against each other. Finally, we propose that different interpretations of the role of order and magnitude depend on the interaction of stimulus properties and task demands.

Summary Recent studies explored the contribution of auditory information in ecological contexts to biological motion perception and its influence on movement execution. This work provides an overview of the most influential scientific contributions in this domain and analyzes the most recent findings, both in sport and motor rehabilitation. Overall, the literature indicates that ecological sounds associated with movements are relevant for perceiving some important features of sport movements. Auditory information is also relevant during performance execution, and can be used to create training protocols. Also, similarly auditory information can be used in clinical contexts to provide rhythmic information to enhance the efficacy of motor rehabilitation protocols. In conclusion, we can say that the role of ecological sounds of movements is examined in conveying complexity of information from a gestalt perspective.

University students are the most employed category of participants in cognitive research. However, researchers cannot fully control what their participants do the night before the experiments (e.g., consumption of alcohol) and, unless the experiment specifically concerns the effects of alcohol consumption, they often do not ask about it. Despite previous studies demonstrating that alcohol consumption leads to decrements in next-day cognitive abilities, the potential confounding effect of hangover on the validity of cognitive research has never been addressed. To address this issue, in the present study, a test-retest design was used, with two groups of university students: at T0, one group was constituted by hungover participants, while the other group was constituted by non-hungover participants; at T1, both groups were re-tested in a non-hangover state. In particular, the tests used were two versions of a parity judgment task and an arithmetic verification task. The results highlight that: (a) the response times of university students experiencing a hangover are significantly slower than those of non-hangover students and (b) the response times of hungover students are slower than those of the same students when re-tested in a non-hangover state. Additionally, it was also observed that the prevalence of hungover students in the university campus varies depending on the day of the week, with a greater chance of enrolling hungover participants on specific days. In light of the latter result, the recruitment of university students as participants in cognitive experiments might lead researchers to erroneously attribute their results to the variables they are manipulating, ignoring the effects of the potential hangover state.