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Direct evidence for linguistic influences in two-digit number processing

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journal contribution
posted on 2020-07-09, 10:06 authored by Julia BahnmuellerJulia Bahnmueller, CA Maier, SM Göbel, Korbinian MoellerKorbinian Moeller
© 2018 American Psychological Association. Language-specific differences in number words influence number processing even in nonverbal numerical tasks. For instance, the unit-decade compatibility effect in two-digit number magnitude comparison (compatible number pairs [42_57: 4 < 5 and 2 < 7] are responded to faster than incompatible pairs [47_62: 4 < 6 but 7 > 2]) was shown to be influenced by the inversion of number words (e.g., in German the number word for 42 is zweiundvierzig [literally: two-and-forty]). In two studies, we used articulatory suppression to investigate whether previously observed cross-linguistic differences in two-digit number processing are indeed driven by differences in number word formation. In a two-digit number comparison task, German- and English-speaking participants had to identify the larger of two numbers presented in Arabic digits. In Study 1, participants performed the same task twice, with and without articulatory suppression. In Study 2, the percentage of within-decade filler items (36_39) was manipulated additionally. As expected, in both studies between-groups differences in the compatibility effect disappeared under articulatory suppression irrespective of the percentage of fillers included. Furthermore, paralleling results of previous studies including 33% or less filler items, we found that the compatibility effect was larger in German compared with English speakers in the 20% filler condition. However, this pattern was reversed in the 50% filler condition in both studies. Thus, results provide first direct evidence for influences of verbal number word formation on symbolic number processing. Moreover, these new findings suggest that linguistic influences and those of cognitive control processes associated with characteristics of the stimulus set interact in symbolic number processing.

Funding

Leibniz-Competition Fund (SAW-2014- IWM-4)

History

Published in

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning Memory and Cognition

Volume

45

Issue

6

Pages

1142 - 1150

Publisher

American Psychological Association

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Rights holder

©American Psychological Association

Publisher statement

©American Psychological Association, 2019. This paper is not the copy of record and may not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. Please do not copy or cite without author's permission. The final article is available, upon publication, at: https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000642

Publication date

2019-06-01

Copyright date

2019

ISSN

0278-7393

eISSN

1939-1285

Language

  • en

Location

United States

Depositor

Dr Julia Bahnmuller . Deposit date: 8 July 2020