Tracking the SPoARC effect from kindergarten to grade 1: initial literacy instruction does not yield group-level effects despite individual variability

Ramos, Tânia;Masson, Nicolas;Schiltz, Christine;Georges, Carrie
(2026) Royal Society Open Science — Vol. 13, n° 3 (2026)

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Authors
  • Ramos, Tâniaorcid-logoUniversity of Luxembourg Faculty of Humanities Education and Social Sciences 1 , ,
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  • Masson, NicolasUniversity of Luxembourg Faculty of Humanities Education and Social Sciences 1 , ,
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  • Schiltz, ChristineUniversity of Luxembourg Faculty of Humanities Education and Social Sciences 1 , ,
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  • Georges, CarrieUniversity of Luxembourg Faculty of Humanities Education and Social Sciences 1 , ,
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Abstract
(en) Maintenance of serial order in working memory is thought to rely on spatial mappings, as evidenced by the spatial-positional association of response codes (SPoARC) effect. Consistently observed in literate adults, this effect appears to be shaped by cultural factors, such as reading direction. Nonetheless, it remains unclear how the SPoARC effect develops and how it is shaped by the onset of literacy instruction. To address these questions, we longitudinally tested 148 children from kindergarten to first grade using an ordinal position task to assess the SPoARC effect at the group and at the individual level before and after the start of formal literacy instruction. In line with van Dijck et al. (van Dijck et al. 2020 Ann. NY Acad. Sci.1477, 91–99. (doi:10.1111/nyas.14430)), no group-level SPoARC effect was observed at T1, although approximately one-third of children showed a consistent individual spatial mapping. Similar patterns emerged at T2, with no significant group-level effect and a comparable proportion of consistent spatial mappers. However, longitudinal analyses revealed low intra-individual reliability. These findings suggest that 1 year of literacy instruction does not significantly influence the SPoARC effect, which remains unstable at the individual level and may be sensitive to contextual factors during this developmental stage.
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Ramos, T., Masson, N., Schiltz, C., & Georges, C. (2026). Tracking the SPoARC effect from kindergarten to grade 1: initial literacy instruction does not yield group-level effects despite individual variability. Royal Society Open Science, 13(3). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.251770 (Original work published 2026)