27.12.2013 Views

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

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

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

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

Visual field assessment showed no sign <strong>of</strong> hemianopia in any one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> participants. All<br />

participants had normal or corrected-to-normal vision, and were right-handed. Participation in<br />

this study was voluntary.<br />

To diagnose neglect (patient group) and to rule out neglect (patient control group), a<br />

standardised neuropsychological neglect test-battery was carried out: Neglect Test (NET; Fels<br />

& Geissner, 1997 adapted German version <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Behavioural Inattention Test - BIT; Wilson,<br />

Cockburn, & Halligan, 1987). This test-battery includes 17 different tasks that can be<br />

allocated into <strong>the</strong> categories conventional sub-tests (e.g. line bisection, line and star crossing,<br />

figure and shape copying, representational drawing) and behavioural subtests (e.g. picture<br />

scanning, menu reading, article reading, telling <strong>the</strong> time from analogue and digital clock<br />

faces, set <strong>the</strong> time). Moreover, to rule out degenerative cognitive processing, <strong>the</strong> SIDAM<br />

(Structured Interview for <strong>the</strong> Diagnosis <strong>of</strong> dementia <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Alzheimer type, Multi-infarct<br />

dementia and dementias <strong>of</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r aetiology; Zaudig et al., 1996) was carried out. <strong>The</strong> SIDAM<br />

is a questionnaire for diagnosing dementia according to international diagnostic guidelines<br />

(ICD 10, DSM IV). This instrument includes simple questions and problems covering areas<br />

such as orientation, instantaneous recall, memory (short-, long-term), intellectual/cognitive<br />

abilities, verbal and numerical abilities, visual-spatial abilities, Aphasia and Apraxia.<br />

Additionally, <strong>the</strong> SIDAM also includes <strong>the</strong> Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE; Folstein,<br />

Folstein, & McHugh, 2000), a dementia screening.<br />

<strong>The</strong> participants’ numerical and ma<strong>the</strong>matical abilities were fur<strong>the</strong>r evaluated using <strong>the</strong><br />

EC 301 R (Claros Salinas, 1994). <strong>The</strong> EC 301 R is a test battery for assessing calculation and<br />

<strong>number</strong> processing in brain-damaged patients. It comprises <strong>the</strong> subtests: dot counting, free<br />

backward counting, <strong>number</strong> transcoding, mental arithmetic, array on a physical <strong>number</strong> line,<br />

<strong>number</strong> comparison (auditory as well as symbolically), multi-digit arithmetic (i.e. addition,<br />

subtraction and multiplication), as well as perceptive and contextual estimations.<br />

209

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!