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

Comparisons to a variable standard
In the study originally reporting the compatibility effect Nuerk et al. (2001) observed a
compatibility effect with response latencies following incompatible number pairs being
reliably longer than latencies for compatible pairs (759 ms vs. 728 ms). Additionally, the
compatibility effect was reliably moderated by unit distance as it was more pronounced for
large unit distances as compared to small unit distances (52 ms vs. 12 ms; see Figure 2, Panel
A).
Holistic model
ANOVA
On the one hand predicting empirical RTs on the basis of the holistic model data
yielded a R 2 of .42, which was reliable [r = .65; F(1, 238) = 171.71, p < .001]. However,
closer inspection revealed that important empirical effects cannot be accounted for by the
holistic model. In the item ANOVA for the data produced by the holistic model there was
only a reliable main effect of decade distance [F(1, 232) = 211.04, p < .001]. This indicated
that according to the model data number pairs with large decade distance were responded to
significantly faster than number pairs with a small decade distance (710 ms vs. 778 ms). Yet,
neither the compatibility effect nor its interaction with unit distance were statistically reliable
[main effect: F(1, 232) < 1; interaction: F(1, 232) < 1, see Figure 2, Panel B]. Moreover, no
other main effect or interaction was found to be significant [all F < 1.59, all p > .21]. Taken
together, this indicated that a reliable correlation of modelled and empirical RT data of its
own is not a sufficient index of model validity.
Regression
The final model of the stepwise regression analysis on the model data produced by the
holistic model accounted for a considerable amount of variance [adj. R 2 = .84, R = .92, F(4,
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