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

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<strong>The</strong> detailed description <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> three neural network models will first focus on depicting<br />

<strong>the</strong> characteristics common to all three models before covering <strong>the</strong> specific features <strong>of</strong> each<br />

model in turn.<br />

Features common to all three models<br />

<strong>The</strong> <strong>number</strong> zero was not implemented in any <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> three models as <strong>the</strong> mental<br />

representation <strong>of</strong> zero seems to be special as compared to <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r single digits: For instance,<br />

Brysbaert (1995) observed that reading zero took participants reliably longer than reading any<br />

o<strong>the</strong>r single digit <strong>number</strong>. Moreover, Nuerk, Iversen and Willmes (2004b) provided additional<br />

evidence based on nonmetric multidimensional scaling analyses that <strong>the</strong> <strong>number</strong> zero may not<br />

be represented on <strong>the</strong> same <strong>number</strong> line as <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r <strong>number</strong>s. However, <strong>the</strong>se studies cannot<br />

clarify whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong> specificity <strong>of</strong> zero originates from <strong>the</strong> fact that zero occurs less frequently<br />

in daily life or from difficulties with <strong>the</strong> conception <strong>of</strong> a <strong>number</strong> symbol representing nothing<br />

(e.g., Frobisher, 1999; Levenson, Tsamir, & Tirosh, 2007). Taken toge<strong>the</strong>r, it is still<br />

debateable whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong> mental <strong>number</strong> line starts at zero or at one.<br />

Finally, because all computational models <strong>of</strong> <strong>number</strong> magnitude representation start<br />

with a representation <strong>of</strong> one (e.g., Verguts et al., 2005; Grossberg & Repin, 2003; Zorzi &<br />

Butterworth, 1999) – zero was also left out in our modelling study. Basically <strong>the</strong>re would be<br />

two different possibilities <strong>of</strong> how to implement zero, ei<strong>the</strong>r by a separate node preceding <strong>the</strong><br />

node associated with one or by no specific node at all. Because <strong>the</strong> latter alternative would<br />

result in no specific neural activation when semantically processing <strong>the</strong> <strong>number</strong> zero, this<br />

conceptualization seems problematic because <strong>the</strong> missing representation <strong>of</strong> zero would also<br />

result in missing representations <strong>of</strong> single-digit <strong>number</strong>s and decade <strong>number</strong>s: At least in <strong>the</strong><br />

fully decomposed model a representation <strong>of</strong> zero is inevitable to account for <strong>number</strong>s such as<br />

04, 08, etc as well as 20, 30, etc, respectively. Please note that in contrast to <strong>the</strong> prolonged<br />

processing times observed for <strong>the</strong> <strong>number</strong> zero processing multiples <strong>of</strong> 10 is faster than<br />

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