How Walking in Circles Affects Math Performance
Walking clockwise helps people perform addition tasks more quickly, but this spatial boost to calculation speed is only seen in men.
Source
Clock Walking and Gender: How Circular Movements Influence Arithmetic Calculations
Study at a glance
- Design
- Human experiment — Clockwise vs counterclockwise walking or wheelchair movement during paced addition/subtraction
- N
- N=46 · University of Bologna students; 23 women; mean age 21.4
- Population
- University students naïve to the hypothesis
- Outcome
- Number of additions completed while moving clockwise vs counterclockwise, split by gender
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How Walking in Circles Affects Math Performance
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46 university students in the study
Forty-six students of the University of Bologna (23 females, M age = 21.35, SD = 1.23) took part in the experiment.
adding or subtracting by three
Participants were asked to keep adding or subtracting three to a starting number (e.g., 371) for 22 s and say the result of each calculation aloud (e.g., 374, 377, 380 or 368, 365, 362, and so on, for additions and subtractions, respectively, until the 22 s elapsed).
What they did
A group of 46 university students, including 23 females, completed mental additions or subtractions of 3, starting from a 3-digit number. They performed these tasks for 22 seconds while traversing a circular path with a diameter of 3.5 meters. The trials tested whether walking actively or riding passively in a wheelchair, in either clockwise or counterclockwise directions, altered calculation rates.
What they found
The researchers found that participants performed significantly more additions when moving clockwise than counterclockwise, but this directional benefit did not apply to subtractions. Surprisingly, when split by gender, this spatial facilitation was only statistically significant in male participants, who completed more additions while moving clockwise. Overall, male participants performed more calculations in the passive wheelchair condition than the active walking condition, while female participants showed no speed difference between these modes.
The limits
What it doesn't show
This study was conducted with a small sample of 46 students, most of whom had backgrounds in the humanities, meaning the results may not generalize to other age groups or populations with different mathematical training. It cannot explain the physiological or cognitive mechanisms of why clockwise motion specifically aids addition, nor why this effect is absent in females. Additionally, because the study was correlational regarding gender, it does not prove a biological cause for the observed differences between male and female participants.
Key terms
- SNARC effect
- A phenomenon where people associate smaller numbers with the left side of space and larger numbers with the right side.
- Embodied cognition
- The theory that cognitive processes, such as mathematical thinking, are deeply rooted in the body's interactions with the physical world.
- Passive mode
- A state in which a person experiences movement through space without active physical exertion, such as riding in a wheelchair.
- Active mode
- A state in which a person physically generates their own movement through space, such as walking.
- Congruency effect
- The performance advantage that occurs when physical actions or directions align with mental concepts, such as addition matching clockwise movement.
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Quiz yourself
What does the SNARC (spatial-numerical association of response codes) effect demonstrate?
Common questions
Why would clockwise walking help with addition but not subtraction?
The authors suggest additions are associated with forward movement and future orientation, which maps onto clockwise rotation, whereas different, less spatially-dependent cognitive mechanisms may drive subtractions.
Why did the clockwise facilitation effect only show up in men?
The study notes that men and women may use different cognitive strategies during mathematical tasks, and spatial-numerical associations are often documented as more pronounced in male participants.
Did active walking help people calculate faster than sitting in a wheelchair?
No, participants actually performed more calculations overall in the passive wheelchair condition than while actively walking.
Did the study measure accuracy or speed?
The task measured the speed of correct calculations within a set time, but accuracy was prioritized, and incorrect calculations resulted in a scoring penalty.
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