More than simple facts: cross-linguistic differences in place-value processing in arithmetic fact retrieval

Linguistic specificities such as the inversion property of number words (e.g., in German 43 is spoken dreiundvierzig, literally three and forty) moderate Arabic number processing. So far, cross-linguistic studies have mostly focused on inversion-related effects on simple (e.g., number comparison) and calculation-based (e.g., multi-digit addition) magnitude processing of numerical information. Despite the assumption that multiplication facts are represented in verbal format, not much attention has been paid to inversion-related influences on multiplication fact retrieval. Accordingly, the current study evaluated inversion-related effects on the processing of place-value information in multiplication. In a verification paradigm, the decade consistency effect (i.e., more errors when the decade of a solution probe shares the decade digit with the correct solution) was larger for English- than German-speaking participants for table-related probes. Processing of decade digits might be prioritised in English-speaking participants because the decade digit is named first in English number words, whereas in German number words the unit digit is named first. Our results indicate that (1) the influence of specificities of a verbal number word formation on place-value processing generalise to arithmetic fact retrieval and (2) inversion of number words might even be advantageous in specific cases.