A multilab registered replication of the attentional SNARC effect.

Citation

Colling LJ, Szűcs D, De Marco D, Cipora K, Ulrich R, Nuerk H, Soltanlou M, Bryce D, Chen S, Schroeder PA, Henare DT, Chrystall CK, Hancock PJB, Millen AE & Langton SR (2020) A multilab registered replication of the attentional SNARC effect. [Registered Replication Report on Fischer, Castel, Dodd, and Pratt (2003).]. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 3 (2), pp. 143-162. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515245920903079

Abstract
The attentional Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (att-SNARC) effect (Fischer et al., 2003; Nature Neuroscience)—the finding that participants are quicker to detect left-side targets when the targets are preceded by small numbers and quicker to detect right-side targets when they are preceded by large numbers—has been used as evidence for embodied number representations and to allow for strong claims about the link between number and space (e.g., a mental number line). We 41 attempted to replicate Study 2 of Fischer et al. (2003) by collecting data from 1105 participants across seventeen labs. Across all 1105 participants and four ISI conditions, the proportion of times the direction of the observed effect was consistent with the original effect was 0.50. Further, the effects we observed both within and across labs were minuscule and incompatible with those observed in Fischer et al. (2003). Given this, we conclude that we have failed to replicate the effect reported by Fischer et al. (2003). In addition, our analysis of several participant-level moderators (finger counting preferences, reading/writing direction experience, handedness, and mathematics fluency and mathematics anxiety) revealed no substantial moderating effects. Our results demonstrate that the att-SNARC effect cannot be used as evidence to support the strong claims about the link between number and space discussed above.

Keywords
meta-analysis; multivariate; open data; open materials; preregistered

Notes
Additional co-authors: Paul M Corballis, Daniel Ansari, Celia Goffin, H Moriah Sokolowski, Kevin J Holmes, Mark S Saviano, Tia A Tummino, Oliver Lindemann, Rolf A Zwaan, Jiří Lukavský, Adéla Becková, Marek A Vranka, Simone Cutini, Irene Cristina Mammarella, Claudio Mulatti, Raoul Bell, Axel Buchner, Laura Mieth, Jan Philipp Röer, Elise Klein, Stefan Huber, Korbinian Moeller, Brenda Ocampo, Juan Lupiáñez, Javier Ortiz-Tudela, Juanma De la fuente, Julio Santiago, Marc Ouellet, Edward M Hubbard, Elizabeth Y Toomarian, Remo Job, Barbara Treccani, & Blakeley B McShane

Journal
Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science: Volume 3, Issue 2

People

Professor Peter Hancock

Professor, Psychology

Dr Stephen Langton

Senior Lecturer, Psychology

Dr Ailsa Millen

Lecturer in Psychology, Psychology