The Future for Snarc Could Be Stark…

The present report by Wood et al. (2006, this issue) invites us to reconsider what we should believe about the cognitive representation of numbers. Researchers interested in numerical cognition have quickly embraced the idea that systematic spatial performance biases in number-related tasks must reflect an inherent spatial attribute of the underlying cognitive representation of numbers. The association between numbers and space (SNARC – spatial numerical association of response codes – effect) has effectively been used to augment the “mental number line” metaphor. Here I discuss the possibility that the SNARC effect is merely an instance of strategic problem solving.