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

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Asian languages (e.g., Japanese, Korean) are entirely regular and transparent in <strong>the</strong>ir coding<br />

<strong>of</strong> units, tens, hundreds, etc. For instance, 86 is spoken as hachi-juu-roku (literally translated:<br />

eight-ten-six). Taking into account <strong>the</strong>se differences it remains to be investigated whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong><br />

observed association between early <strong>place</strong>-<strong>value</strong> understanding and fur<strong>the</strong>r numerical /<br />

arithmetical development represents <strong>the</strong> general presence and importance <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>place</strong>-<strong>value</strong><br />

structuring principle in <strong>the</strong> world wide dominant <strong>Arabic</strong> <strong>number</strong> system. On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand,<br />

<strong>the</strong> <strong>influence</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>place</strong>-<strong>value</strong> understanding may be moderated by language specificities such<br />

as <strong>the</strong> inversion property in <strong>number</strong> words in a way similar to <strong>the</strong> <strong>influence</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>place</strong>-<strong>value</strong><br />

structuring on <strong>the</strong> development <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> spatial representation <strong>of</strong> <strong>number</strong> magnitude (cf. Study<br />

3; Moeller et al., 2009b).<br />

In summary, <strong>the</strong> results <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> current <strong>the</strong>sis addressing <strong>influence</strong>s <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>place</strong>-<strong>value</strong><br />

<strong>structure</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Arabic</strong> <strong>number</strong> system on numerical development are straight forward.<br />

Extending previous results suggesting <strong>place</strong>-<strong>value</strong> information to determine performance in a<br />

<strong>number</strong> line estimation task (cf. Moeller et al., 2009b) it was observed that this <strong>influence</strong><br />

generalises to language with a <strong>number</strong> word system without inversion. Never<strong>the</strong>less, <strong>the</strong> data<br />

also indicated that <strong>the</strong> correspondence between <strong>the</strong> order <strong>of</strong> tens and units in a language’s<br />

<strong>number</strong> words and symbolical notation serves as a moderating factor <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>influence</strong> <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>place</strong>-<strong>value</strong> structuring on <strong>the</strong> development <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> spatial representation <strong>of</strong> <strong>number</strong> magnitude.<br />

However, apart from this cross-culturaal observation Study 4 <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> current <strong>the</strong>sis also showed<br />

that that <strong>the</strong> <strong>influence</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>place</strong>-<strong>value</strong> understanding is not limited to basic numerical tasks<br />

tapping only basic numerical representations. Instead, longitudinal evidence was reported that<br />

indicates a reliable <strong>influence</strong> <strong>of</strong> early <strong>place</strong>-<strong>value</strong> understanding on later numerical<br />

/arithmetical development, in particular, when also requiring processes <strong>of</strong> <strong>place</strong>-<strong>value</strong><br />

integration as in solving carry addition problems. Thus, it can be concluded that on a crosscultural<br />

perspective <strong>the</strong> <strong>place</strong>-<strong>value</strong> ordering principle <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Arabic</strong> <strong>number</strong> system exhibits a<br />

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