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

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jittering <strong>the</strong> positions <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> sequentially presented <strong>number</strong>s may indeed provide evidence for<br />

a decomposed processing <strong>of</strong> tens and units even when <strong>the</strong> to-be-compared <strong>number</strong>s are<br />

presented sequentially. Finally, Wood, Mahr, and Nuerk (2005) showed that when <strong>the</strong> to-becompared<br />

<strong>number</strong>s are presented one after <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r (with a 100 ms delay) <strong>the</strong> individual<br />

digits <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>number</strong> presented first are compared by <strong>the</strong>ir magnitude. <strong>The</strong> authors also found<br />

that <strong>the</strong>se intra-<strong>number</strong> comparisons worked against <strong>the</strong> overall compatibility effect. Again,<br />

this questions <strong>the</strong> conclusions drawn by Ganor-Stern et al. (2008).<br />

Taking into account above arguments as well as <strong>the</strong> results <strong>of</strong> Study 1 it seems<br />

reasonable to assume that <strong>the</strong> internal representation <strong>of</strong> <strong>number</strong> magnitude may not be holistic<br />

as claimed by Zhang and Wang (2005) and Ganor-Stern et al. (2008; see also Zhou, Chen,<br />

Chen, & Dong, 2008) but is decomposed as well, <strong>the</strong>reby retaining <strong>the</strong> <strong>place</strong>-<strong>value</strong> <strong>structure</strong><br />

<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Arabic</strong> <strong>number</strong> system.<br />

<strong>The</strong> latter proposition that <strong>the</strong> <strong>place</strong>-<strong>value</strong> <strong>structure</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Arabic</strong> <strong>number</strong> system is an<br />

integral constituent <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> human representation <strong>of</strong> <strong>number</strong> magnitude is corroborated by <strong>the</strong><br />

variety <strong>of</strong> tasks for which an <strong>influence</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>place</strong>-<strong>value</strong> knowledge on performance was<br />

observed in <strong>the</strong> current <strong>the</strong>sis. Apart from <strong>the</strong> very basic <strong>number</strong> comparison task fur<strong>the</strong>r<br />

evidence for <strong>the</strong> importance <strong>of</strong> processes <strong>of</strong> <strong>place</strong>-<strong>value</strong> integration come from <strong>the</strong> <strong>number</strong><br />

bisection task, mental addition as well as a <strong>number</strong> line task which shall be discussed in <strong>the</strong><br />

following.<br />

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