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Speaking two languages with different number naming systems: What implications for magnitude judgments in bilinguals at different stages of language acquisition?

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Abstract

Differences between languages in terms of number naming systems may lead to performance differences in number processing. The current study focused on differences concerning the order of decades and units in two-digit number words (i.e., unit-decade order in German but decade-unit order in French) and how they affect number magnitude judgments. Participants performed basic numerical tasks, namely two-digit number magnitude judgments, and we used the compatibility effect (Nuerk et al. in Cognition 82(1):B25–B33, 2001) as a hallmark of language influence on numbers. In the first part we aimed to understand the influence of language on compatibility effects in adults coming from German or French monolingual and German–French bilingual groups (Experiment 1). The second part examined how this language influence develops at different stages of language acquisition in individuals with increasing bilingual proficiency (Experiment 2). Language systematically influenced magnitude judgments such that: (a) The spoken language(s) modulated magnitude judgments presented as Arabic digits, and (b) bilinguals’ progressive language mastery impacted magnitude judgments presented as number words. Taken together, the current results suggest that the order of decades and units in verbal numbers may qualitatively influence magnitude judgments in bilinguals and monolinguals, providing new insights into how number processing can be influenced by language(s).

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Notes

  1. http://www.men.public.lu/catalogue-publications/systeme-educatif/langues-ecole-luxembourgeoise/reajustement-enseignement-langues/fr.pdf, p. 45.

  2. This is the range of number pairs used in the magnitude judgment tasks to observe compatibility effects.

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Acknowledgments

The current research was funded by the Luxembourgish Fund for Scientific Research (FNR, Luxembourg) in the framework of the LangNum CORE project. The authors declare no conflict of interest that might be interpreted as influencing the research, and APA ethical standards were followed in the conduct of this work. We especially thank Prof. Alain Content who allowed us to test in his laboratory. We gratefully thank all the participants, the schools for their permission to recruit student participants and the student helpers for their support in the data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cognitive Science and Assessment, Education, Culture, Cognition and Society research Unit, University of Luxembourg, 11, Porte des Sciences, 4366, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

    Amandine Van Rinsveld & Christine Schiltz

  2. Department of Psychology-Developmental Psychology, University of Graz, Universitätsplatz 2/DG, 8010, Graz, Austria

    Karin Landerl

  3. Free University of Berlin and Berlin-Brandenburg Institute for School Quality, Otto-von-Simson-Str. 15, 14195, Berlin, Germany

    Martin Brunner

  4. Luxembourg Center for Educational Testing, LUCET, University of Luxembourg, 11, Porte des Sciences, 4366, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg

    Sonja Ugen

Authors
  1. Amandine Van Rinsveld
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  2. Christine Schiltz
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  3. Karin Landerl
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  4. Martin Brunner
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  5. Sonja Ugen
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Correspondence to Amandine Van Rinsveld.

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Handling editor: Martin H. Fischer (University of Potsdam).

Reviewers: Gunnar Jacob (University of Potsdam), Meghan Goldman (University of California, Irvine).

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Van Rinsveld, A., Schiltz, C., Landerl, K. et al. Speaking two languages with different number naming systems: What implications for magnitude judgments in bilinguals at different stages of language acquisition?. Cogn Process 17, 225–241 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-016-0762-9

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