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The influence of the place-value structure of the Arabic number ...

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has been shown that o<strong>the</strong>r representations <strong>influence</strong> task performance in such tasks as well.<br />

For instance, Nuerk, Weger, and Willmes (2005) have shown non-magnitude-related language<br />

effects in <strong>the</strong> magnitude comparison task whereas Nuerk, Geppert, van Herten, and Willmes<br />

(2002, see also Korvorst & Damian, 2008; Wood et al., 2008) observed reliable nonmagnitude<br />

effects <strong>of</strong> parity and multiplication fact knowledge in <strong>the</strong> <strong>number</strong> bisection task.<br />

On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand, following <strong>the</strong> effect approach an underlying cognitive<br />

representation (e.g., magnitude representation) is reflected by <strong>the</strong> size <strong>of</strong> a specific effect<br />

associated with this representation (e.g., <strong>the</strong> numerical distance effect). As <strong>the</strong> distance effect<br />

is one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> most robust effects in numerical cognition (observed even in non-human<br />

primates, e.g., Nieder, Diester, & Tudusciuc, 2006) its disappearance, reversion, or inflation<br />

can be used to indicate impairments <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> underlying <strong>number</strong> magnitude representation. In<br />

this vein, Delazer and colleagues (Delazer, Karner, Zamarian, Donnemiller, & Benke, 2006)<br />

observed an increased distance effect to indicate impaired <strong>number</strong> magnitude processing<br />

capabilities (despite <strong>the</strong> fact that overall error rate in a magnitude comparison task did not<br />

seem conspicuous). <strong>The</strong>reby, <strong>the</strong> effect approach allows for a more fine-grained evaluation <strong>of</strong><br />

performance even in situations where overall performance measures (e.g., overall error rates)<br />

may be too unsubtle and thus undifferentiated. <strong>The</strong>refore, focusing on a specific numerical<br />

effect within a task instead <strong>of</strong> overall performance in this task may provide additional<br />

information when investigating mastery <strong>of</strong> a particular underlying representation (see also<br />

Hoeckner et al., 2008; Korvorst & Damian, 2008; Nuerk et al., 2002; Wood et al., 2008).<br />

Such an effect approach has already been successfully applied to <strong>the</strong> domain <strong>of</strong><br />

numerical development by Holloway and Ansari (2009). <strong>The</strong>y observed that children who<br />

exhibited a comparatively larger symbolic distance effect (i.e., more errors when comparing<br />

two <strong>number</strong>s close to each o<strong>the</strong>r than two <strong>number</strong>s fur<strong>the</strong>r apart, e.g., 3_4 vs. 1_6) scored<br />

lower on a standardized ma<strong>the</strong>matics achievement test (see also De Smedt, Verschaffel, &<br />

Ghesquière, 2009a; Landerl & Kölle, 2009 for similar results).<br />

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