The representation of numbers in human adults is linked to space. In Western cultures, small and large numbers are associated respectively with the left and right sides of space. An influential framework attributes the emergence of these spatial-numerical associations (SNAs) to cultural factors such as the direction of reading and writing, because SNAs were found to be reduced or inverted in right-to-left readers/writers (e.g., Arabic, Farsi, or Hebrew speakers). However, recent cross-cultural and animal studies cast doubt on the determining role of reading and writing directions on SNAs. In this study, we assessed this role in mental arithmetic, which requires explicit number manipulations and has revealed robust leftward or rightward biases in Western participants. We used a temporal order judgement task in French and Arabic speakers, two languages that have opposite reading/writing directions. Participants had to solve subtraction and addition problems presented auditorily while at the same time determining which of a left or right visual target appeared first on a screen. The results showed that the right target was favoured more often when solving additions than when solving subtractions both in the French- (n = 31) and Arabic-speaking (n = 25) groups. This was true even in Arabic-speaking participants whose preference for ordering of various series of numerical and non-numerical stimuli went from right to left (n = 10). These results indicate that SNAs in mental arithmetic cannot be explained by the direction of reading/writing habits and call for a reconsideration of current models to acknowledge the pervasive role of biological factors in SNAs in adults.

中文翻译：

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心算中的空间偏差与阅读/写作习惯无关：来自法语和阿拉伯语人士的证据。

成年人的数字表示与空间有关。在西方文化中，小数和大数分别与空间的左侧和右侧相关联。一个有影响力的框架将这些空间数字关联 (SNA) 的出现归因于文化因素，例如阅读和写作的方向，因为在从右到左的读者/作者（例如，阿拉伯语、波斯语或希伯来语使用者）。然而，最近的跨文化和动物研究对阅读和写作方向对 SNA 的决定作用提出了质疑。在这项研究中，我们评估了这种在心算中的作用，这需要明确的数字操作，并揭示了西方参与者强烈的向左或向右偏见。我们在法语和阿拉伯语使用者中使用了时间顺序判断任务，两种读/写方向相反的语言。参与者必须解决听觉呈现的减法和加法问题，同时确定左或右视觉目标中的哪个首先出现在屏幕上。结果表明，在法语组（n = 31）和阿拉伯语组（n = 25）中，正确的目标在解决加法时比在解决减法时更受欢迎。即使在说阿拉伯语的参与者中也是如此，他们对各种数字和非数字刺激的排序偏好从右到左（n = 10）。这些结果表明心算中的 SNA 不能用阅读/写作习惯的方向来解释，并呼吁重新考虑当前模型，以承认生物因素在成人 SNA 中的普遍作用。