ReviewNeuroscience and biobehavioral reviews2018
On the genesis of spatial-numerical associations: Evolutionary and cultural factors co-construct the mental number line.
Review in Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A qualitative systematic review of individual differences in Stroop task performance among healthy adults.Psychological research · 2026Pooled it
- Spatial attention in mental arithmetic: A literature review and meta-analysis.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2024Pooled it
- Numbers Driving Space: Experience With Numerical Sequences Modulates Spatial Behavior in Newborn Chicks (Gallus gallus).Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- Ace in the hole: playing cards show the role of order and magnitude in the SNARC effect.Psychological research · 2026Article
- Manual pointing bias reflects spatial organization of number knowledge.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Motion-numerical compatibility affects magnitude classification.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The unity of sense and mind: A review of cross-domain mapping.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2026Review
- Diverging roles of domain-specific anxieties in number-space associations. Insights from a multi-directional number line paradigm.Psychological research · 2025Article
- Article
- The role of cognitive control in the interaction of the SNARC and MARC effects.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- A SNARC-like effect for visual speed.Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2025Article
- Unravelling the small number bias: the role of pseudoneglect and frequency of use in random number generation.Psychological research · 2025Article
- Effect of spatial training on space-number mapping: a situated cognition account.Psychological research · 2025Article
- The relationship of spatial visualization ability and number representation: evidence from multiple tasks.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- One and only SNARC? Spatial-Numerical Associations are not fully flexible and depend on both relative and absolute number magnitude.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Practice-induced SNARC: evidence from a null-SNARC sample.Cognitive processing · 2024Article
- Development of number line estsimation in Chinese preschoolers: a comparison between numerical and non-numerical symbols.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Understanding the complexities of mathematical cognition: A multi-level framework.Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) · 2023Article
- When time stands upright: STEARC effects along the vertical axis.Psychological research · 2023Article
- Number to me, space to you: Joint representation of spatial-numerical associations.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2022Article
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2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Mapping numbers onto space is a common cognitive representation that has been explored in both behavioral and neuroimaging contexts. Empirical work probing the diverse nature of these spatial-numerical associations (SNAs) has led researchers to question 1) how the human brain links numbers with space, and 2) whether this link is biologically vs. culturally determined. We review the existing literature on the development of SNAs and situate that empirical work within cognitive and neuroscientific theoretical frameworks. We propose that an evolutionarily-ancient frontal-parietal circuit broadly tuned to multiple magnitude dimensions provides the phylogenetic substrate for SNAs, while enculturation and sensorimotor experience shape their specific profiles. We then use this perspective to discuss educational implications and highlight promising avenues for future research.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.