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

Please note that in contrast to Miura and colleagues (1994; 1989) we were not
interested in the pure explicit knowledge of place-value principles as required to recode
numbers into non-symbolic sets of tens and units blocks. Instead we paid particular attention
to effects of the place-value structure of the symbolic Arabic number system inherent in
specific numerical tasks. This means that we aimed at specifically focusing on the way placevalue
knowledge is applied in symbolic numerical tasks for which mastery of the place-value
structure may be beneficial. Nevertheless, these tasks were not designed to explicitly assess
children’s knowledge of digital and positional values within a number by transformations into
non-symbolic sets. Thus, the current study goes a step beyond the research by Miura and
colleagues (1994; 1989) who showed that the strategies used to recode numbers into sets of
tens and units blocks depend on language specificities in number word systems. However,
Miura and co-workers did not investigate in which way these language effects as mediated by
mastery of the place-value structure of the Arabic number system determine performance in
other symbolic numerical tasks; and more particularly whether or not such differences
implicitly influence the further development of arithmetical competencies such as addition.
In summary, recent research clearly indicates that mastery of the place-value structure
of the Arabic number system is not only crucial for successful transcoding (see above) but is
also essentially involved in tasks as easy as number comparison. In the final paragraph, the
influences of basic place-value understanding on addition performance will be reviewed
briefly.
The Arabic place-value structure and arithmetic performance
Comparable to the tasks introduced above the acquisition of more complex arithmetic
problem solving (e.g., addition) might depend on a correct understanding of the place-value
concept. Whenever the result of an addition problem contains more than one digit the single
digits of the result have to be integrated into one coherent number according to the Arabic
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