Numbers are highly relevant in our everyday lives and we often process them automatically even if not required. This is reflected by the SNARC (Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes; Dehaene et al., 1993) effect, which describes faster responses to smaller/larger numbers with the left/right, respectively. It arises in semantic number-processing tasks both when number magnitude is task-relevant (e.g., magnitude classification) and task-irrelevant (e.g., parity judgment). In this highly-powered online study, we also found the SNARC effect in non-semantic number-processing tasks:
- nominal color judgment (blue vs. yellow), see https://osf.io/jv4as/
- color intensity judgment (light cyan vs. dark cyan), see https://osf.io/mwqh8/