Is the SNARC effect associated with pre-mathematical and spatial abilities in preschool?

The SNARC (Spatial Numerical Association of Responses Codes) is a cognitive phenomenon describing the mental association between numbers and space, where small/large numbers are associated with the left/right side of space, respectively. This effect has been extensively studied over the last 30 years, and yet its functionality in mathematical and spatial abilities remains unclear. To date, some studies in typical children have shown that the presence of a strong SNARC is associated with better mathematical abilities (e.g., Hoffmann et al., 2013; Georges et al., 2017), while others did not report such a significant relation (e.g., Gibson & Maurer, 2016; Schneider et al., 2009). To better understand the functionality of number-space associations, we investigated the triangular relationship between SNARC, mathematical and spatial abilities in preschool children from Luxembourg (n=136, mean age=6.3 years). The SNARC was assessed using a magnitude classification task, where children gave left-/right-sided responses to judge whether centrally presented digits (1-9) were smaller/larger than 5, respectively, and vice-versa. Linear regressions between number magnitude and differences in left-right-sided responses were computed to index the SNARC effect, with negative regression slopes reflecting number-space associations in the left-to-right direction. Bootstrapping was then conducted to measure the consistency of individual SNARC regression slopes. 37% and 19% of children revealed consistent number-space associations in a left-to-right and right-to-left direction, respectively. 44% did not show consistent spatial-numerical mappings. Pre-mathematical and spatial abilities were measured using 7 numerical and 3 spatial tasks, respectively, reduced into two factors via two respective principal component analyses. A one-way ANOVA revealed no significant effect of SNARC consistency (left-to-right consistent, right-to-left consistent, inconsistent) on the numerical and spatial factors. Although some children show consistent spatial-numerical mappings at this developmental stage, it seems that they might not (yet) rely on these associations when performing numerical and spatial tasks.