Twenty-four or four-and-twenty: Language modulates cross-modal matching for multidigit numbers in children and adults

Steiner, Anna; Banfi, Chiara; Finke, Sabrina; Kemény, Ferenc; Clayton, Francina Jane; Göbel, Silke M.; Landerl, Karin

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104970

Cited by 8 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Their assumption is supported by earlier studies in languages without inversion, which did not report decade-unit order as an obstacle in number writing (Power & Dal Martello, 1990, 1997Seron & Fayol, 1994). Subsequent cross-linguistic studies confirmed that children learning to read and write numbers in languages with decade-unit inversion have language-specific problems with digit order (Imbo, Vanden Bulcke, De Brauwer, & Fias, 2014;Moeller, Zuber, et al, 2015;Poncin, Van Rinsveld, & Schiltz, 2019;Steiner et al, 2021).…”

Section: The Impact Of Language On Transcodingsupporting

confidence: 52%

“…Inversion seems to have a particularly strong impact on transcoding performance in early development. Only small effects were reported on transcoding in older children and adults, both in languages with left-to-right writing systems (Steiner et al, 2021;van der Ven, Klaiber, & van der Maas, 2017) and right-to-left writing systems (Ganayim, Ganayim, Dowker, & Olkun, 2020;Hayek, Karni, & Eviatar, 2020). Decade-unit inversion was also reported to influence transcoding in a second (non-inverted) language.…”

Section: The Impact Of Language On Transcodingmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Moreover, they are in line with recent findings showing long-lasting inversion effects on transcoding: German-speaking fourth graders needed more time to select Ara bic two-digit numbers matching a spoken number word than French-speaking fourth graders who do not have to deal with inversion (Poncin et al, 2019). An enduring impact of inversion was recently also demonstrated in a verbal-visual matching task where German-speaking elementary school children and even adults with ample experience in number writing and reading needed longer to reject inverted Arabic numbers than English-speaking samples (Steiner et al, 2021). Decade-unit inversion impacts early number development and leads to permanent adverse effects on transcoding.…”

Section: Language-specific Challenges In Transcodingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…German, on the other hand, has an inconsistent correspondence between number formats, as units are pronounced before decades, for example, 24 is "vierundzwanzig"-literally translated as four-and-twenty. Up to now, theoretical models (e.g., Barrouillet, Camos, Perruchet, & Seron, 2004;Power & Dal Martello, 1990;Seron & Noël, 1995) are mostly language-specific (e.g., Moeller, Zuber, Olsen, Nuerk, & Willmes, 2015;Pixner et al, 2011;Steiner et al, 2021;Zuber et al, 2009) and model transcoding performance in languages with consistent number word structure, but are not always adequate for languages with deviant number word structures. The aim of this study was to establish a sound empirical basis to improve current transcoding models.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Language effects in early development of number writing and reading

et al. 2021

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Reading and writing multidigit numbers requires accurate switching between Arabic numbers and spoken number words. This is particularly challenging in languages with number-word inversion such as German (24 is pronounced as four-and-twenty), as reported by Zuber, Pixner, Moeller, and Nuerk (2009, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2008.04.003). The current study aimed to replicate the qualitative error analysis by Zuber et al. and further extended their study: 1) A cross-linguistic (German, English) analysis enabled us to differentiate between language-dependent and more general transcoding challenges. 2) We investigated whether specific number structures influence accuracy rates. 3) To consider both transcoding directions (from Arabic numbers to number words and vice versa), we assessed performance for number reading in addition to number writing. 4) Our longitudinal design allowed us to investigate transcoding development between Grades 1 and 2. We assessed 170 German- and 264 English-speaking children. Children wrote and read the same set of 44 one-, two- and three-digit numbers, including the same number structures as Zuber et al. For German, we confirmed that a high amount of errors in number writing was inversion-related. For English, the percentage of inversion-related errors was very low. Accuracy rates were strongly related to number syntax. The impact of number structures was independent of transcoding direction or grade level and revealed cross-linguistic challenges of transcoding multidigit numbers. For instance, transcoding of three-digit numbers containing syntactic zeros (e.g., 109) was significantly more accurate than transcoding of items with lexical zeros (e.g., 190). Based on our findings, we suggest adaptations of current transcoding models.

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Section: The Impact Of Language On Transcodingsupporting

confidence: 52%

Section: The Impact Of Language On Transcodingmentioning

confidence: 93%

Section: Language-specific Challenges In Transcodingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Language effects in early development of number writing and reading

et al. 2021

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“…On top of these factors, the structure of a language such as morphemes and syntax shape each language learning trajectory. These factors might therefore impact transcoding as well as arithmetic in general, since common processes are implicated in both [ 17 – 19 ]. See also [ 20 ] for an overview of language-related factors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Number transcoding in bilinguals—A transversal developmental study

et al. 2022

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Number transcoding is the cognitive task of converting between different numerical codes (i.e. visual “42”, verbal “forty-two”). Visual symbolic to verbal transcoding and vice versa strongly relies on language proficiency. We evaluated transcoding of German-French bilinguals from Luxembourg in 5th, 8th, 11th graders and adults. In the Luxembourgish educational system, children acquire mathematics in German (LM1) until the 7th grade, and then the language of learning mathematic switches to French (LM2). French `70s `80s `90s are less transparent than `30s `40s `50s numbers, since they have a base-20 structure, which is not the case in German. Transcoding was evaluated with a reading aloud and a verbal-visual number matching task. Results of both tasks show a cognitive cost for transcoding numbers having a base-20 structure (i.e. `70s, `80s and `90s), such that response times were slower in all age groups. Furthermore, considering only base-10 numbers (i.e. `30s `40s `50s), it appeared that transcoding in LM2 (French) also entailed a cost. While participants across age groups tended to read numbers slower in LM2, this effect was limited to the youngest age group in the matching task. In addition, participants made more errors when reading LM2 numbers. In conclusion, we observed an age-independent language effect with numbers having a base-20 structure in French, reflecting their reduced transparency with respect to the decimal system. Moreover, we find an effect of language of math acquisition such that transcoding is less well mastered in LM2. This effect tended to persist until adulthood in the reading aloud task, while in the matching task performance both languages become similar in older adolescents and young adults. This study supports the link between numbers and language, especially highlighting the impact of language on reading numbers aloud from childhood to adulthood.

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