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

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scarce (but see Domahs et al., 2006; 2007). <strong>The</strong>refore, <strong>the</strong> general aim <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> current <strong>the</strong>sis<br />

was to provide fur<strong>the</strong>r evidence for <strong>the</strong> generality <strong>of</strong> a decomposed representation <strong>of</strong> two-digit<br />

<strong>number</strong> magnitude. On <strong>the</strong> level <strong>of</strong> basic research on <strong>the</strong> representation <strong>of</strong> two-digit <strong>number</strong><br />

magnitude this goal was pursued by two studies. Based on <strong>the</strong> origins <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> notion <strong>of</strong><br />

decomposed processing <strong>of</strong> two-digit <strong>number</strong>s Study 1 investigated whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong>re are indeed<br />

representational differences between internal and external magnitude representations as<br />

claimed by Zhang and Wang (2005) with only <strong>the</strong> external representation being decomposed<br />

complying with <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 while <strong>the</strong> internal<br />

representation <strong>of</strong> <strong>number</strong> magnitude were holistic instead. Going beyond <strong>the</strong> case <strong>of</strong> such<br />

basic numerical tasks Study 2 was intended to <strong>of</strong>fer new evidence for <strong>the</strong> generalizability <strong>of</strong><br />

decomposed processing <strong>of</strong> tens and units to <strong>the</strong> case <strong>of</strong> mental arithmetic by evaluating <strong>the</strong><br />

case <strong>of</strong> two-digit addition. However, when interested in <strong>the</strong> general validity <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> account <strong>of</strong><br />

decomposed processing <strong>of</strong> multi-digit <strong>number</strong> magnitude an important aspect refers to <strong>the</strong><br />

<strong>influence</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>place</strong>-<strong>value</strong> properties on <strong>the</strong> development <strong>of</strong> numerical cognition which will be<br />

addressed in Studies 3 and 4. Study 3 follows up on a recent study by Moeller et al. (2009b)<br />

in which <strong>the</strong> authors presented an alternative account for <strong>the</strong> development <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> spatial<br />

representation <strong>of</strong> <strong>number</strong> magnitude up to 100 suggesting two separate representations <strong>of</strong><br />

single- and two-digit <strong>number</strong>s; <strong>the</strong>reby considering <strong>place</strong>-<strong>value</strong> properties <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Arabic</strong><br />

<strong>number</strong> system. In Study 3 <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> current <strong>the</strong>sis <strong>the</strong> validity <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir account is evaluated in a<br />

trans-lingual study also allowing for an evaluation <strong>of</strong> <strong>influence</strong>s determined by differences in<br />

<strong>the</strong> <strong>number</strong> word systems <strong>of</strong> German and Italian on a non-verbal numeric task, i.e., <strong>the</strong><br />

<strong>number</strong> line estimation task. Thus, apart from <strong>the</strong> obvious investigation <strong>of</strong> <strong>place</strong>-<strong>value</strong><br />

<strong>influence</strong>s in numerical development Study 3 also aimed at extending <strong>the</strong> notion <strong>of</strong><br />

decomposed processing <strong>of</strong> tens and units to <strong>the</strong> case <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>number</strong> line task.<br />

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