Size and Spatial Congruity Effects in Single-Digit Magnitude Judgment Tasks

The spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC; Dehaene, Bossini, & Giraux, 1993) effect and size congruity effect (SiCE; Henik & Tzelgov, 1982) are the results of relationships of numerical magnitude with response location and physical size respectively. These relationships have been the subjects of thorough investigation in the numerical cognition literature. However, such investigations have largely occurred independently of each other, with few studies known to the author offering simultaneous investigation of the relationships between numerical magnitude and response location and between numerical magnitude and physical size. Four experiments using single-digit magnitude judgment tasks resulted in reliable SNARC effects, with little evidence of SICEs and no interactions between the factors that give rise to these relationships. Obtained results suggest the spatial-numerical and size-numerical relationships that give rise to SiCE and SNARC effects are the result of separate representational processes rather than a singular representation of physical and numerical magnitude information.