Whorf reloaded: Language effects on nonverbal number processing in first grade—A trilingual study

Transcoding abilities in typical and atypical mathematics achievers: The role of working memory and procedural and lexical competencies

“…Number transcoding is particularly difficult to learn when the structure of the Arabic or verbal numbering system is not clear (Deloche & Seron, 1987;Pixner, Moeller, Hermanová, Nuerk, & Kaufmann, 2011a). The difficulties are more apparent in adults with brain lesions and in young children who are not completely familiar with the place value system of Arabic notation (Camos, 2008;Deloche & Seron, 1982;Geary, 2000;Power & Dal Martello, 1990Zuber, Pixner, Moeller, & Nuerk, 2009).…”

Diagnostics and Intervention in Developmental Dyscalculia: Current Issues and Novel Perspectives

“…47 is spoken as "siebenundvierzig" (literally "seven-and-forty") and thus the order of tens and units is reversed in number words as compared to symbolic digital notation. This seems to influence numerical development even later on, as it is assumed that typically developing children but also adults verbally recode digitally presented numbers while e.g., performing calculations to keep track of partial results and the calculation procedure (see Helmreich et al 2011;Pixner et al 2011, for influences of different verbal number word systems on non-verbal numerical cognition in children; for adult data; Nuerk et al 2011 for a review).…”

“…Additionally, there is now first evidence that the carry effect in addition may also be interpreted as a specific effect of place-value integration as tens and units are processed differentially (Klein et al 2010;Moeller et al 2011a, b). Furthermore, recent studies suggest that the structure of the number word system of a language (with/without inversion) may have particular influences on the successful acquisition and application of place-value information (Helmreich et al 2011;Pixner et al 2011). Generally, children whose number word system is inconsistent with the Arabic notation (i.e., because of an inversion of tens and units as e.g., in German number words; 64 !…”

Two roads to the successor axiom

“…On the other hand, such errors have not been observed for languages that do not have this kind of inversion, such as French (Barrouillet et al 2004;Camos 2008). This difference between languages also leads to an increased unit-decade compatibility effect for languages with inversion, because inversion makes it more difficult to determine which digits have a higher value (Nuerk et al 2005;Pixner et al 2011). Language inversion even makes it more difficult to solve addition problems that involve carries, because again one needs to know which digits are the unit digits and which the decade digits in order to be able to correctly carry the sum of the units (Moeller et al 2011a;Göbel et al 2014).…”