Vertical versus horizontal Spatial-Numerical Associations (SNA): A processing advantage for the vertical dimension

Abstract

Humans have associations between numbers and physical space on both horizontal and vertical dimensions, called Spatial-Numerical Associations (SNAs). Several studies have considered the hypothesis of there being a dominant orientation by examining on which dimension people are more accurate and efficient at responding during various directional SNA tasks. However, these studies have difficulty differentiating between a person’s efficiency at accessing mental representations of numbers in space, and the efficiency at which they exercise motor control functions, particularly bilateral ones, when manifesting a response during an explicit directional SNA task. In this study we use a conflict test employing combined explicit magnitude and spatial directional processing in which pairs of numbers are placed along the diagonal axes and response accuracy/efficiency are considered across the horizontal and vertical dimensions simultaneously. Participants indicated which number in each pair was largest using a joystick that only required unilateral input. The experiment was run in English using Arabic numerals. Results showed that directional SNAs have a vertical rather than horizontal dominance. A moderating factor was also found during post-hoc analysis, where response efficiency, but not accuracy, is conditional on a person’s native language being oriented the same as the language of the experiment, left to right. The dominance of the vertical orientation suggests adopting more vertical display formats for numbers may provide situational advantages, particularly for explicit magnitude comparisons, with some domains like flight controls and the stock market already using these in some cases.