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

numbers up to 20 and their arithmetic relations. Nevertheless, in the task approach analysis
the magnitude comparison task was a reliable predictor of later addition performance. This
seems to imply that this significant predictive power we observed could eventually be
augmented and maybe even specified to the compatibility effect when the magnitude
comparison task is made more reliable (e.g., by employing more and different stimuli).
The distance effect and later arithmetic performance
Recent results concerning the influence of the distance effect are controversial. On the
one hand, Holloway and Ansari (2009) observed a larger distance effect to be associated with
worse performance in typically developing children (see also De Smedt et al., 2009b for
similar results; but see Nuerk et al., 2004a for contrasting findings). Additionally, Delazer and
colleagues (2006) reported a larger distance effect in a neurological patient (suffering from
posterior cortical atrophy) exhibiting difficulties in magnitude representation and arithmetic.
Finally, Kaufmann and Nuerk (2008) found that children with ADHD-C also had a larger
distance effect than their non-ADHD peers, which has been interpreted as reflecting group
differences in number representations (i.e., a larger distance effect possibly being due to more
noisy number magnitude representations).
However, in the present study, a positive correlation between the distance effect and
performance was obtained suggesting a larger distance effect to be associated with better
performance. Nevertheless, such a (cor)relation is corroborated by the results of Rousselle and
Noël (2007). Comparable to the present data these authors also report a relatively larger
distance effect being associated with better arithmetic performance. As Rousselle and Noël
(2007) investigated a sample of dyscalculic children they attributed this finding the possibility
of some children relying on some “peculiar strategies” (Rousselle & Noël, 2007, p. 387) when
comparing two numbers. Such back-up strategies (e.g., counting) may have been necessary as
direct access to the numbers’ magnitude representation was impaired. This interpretation can
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