Number word structure in first and second language influences arithmetic skills.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Science
• Linguistics
• Psychology

Background:

• Languages vary in number-word structure, with non-inverted (e.g., Hebrew) and inverted (e.g., Arabic) systems.
• The impact of these linguistic structures on arithmetic processing, particularly in bilingual individuals, is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how the structure of number-words influences arithmetic operation processing in bilingual speakers of inverted and non-inverted languages.
• To compare the performance of Arabic-Hebrew bilinguals with native Hebrew speakers.

Main Methods:

• Participants judged the accuracy of auditory and visual addition problems.
• Problems were presented in Arabic (inverted) and Hebrew (non-inverted), and in visual symbolic notation.
• Performance was analyzed for accuracy and speed, comparing bilinguals and monolinguals.

Main Results:

• Arabic-Hebrew bilinguals showed language-specific adaptation, performing better with inverted order in Arabic and non-inverted order in Hebrew.
• Native Hebrew speakers consistently preferred the non-inverted order.
• Bilinguals demonstrated enhanced flexibility in visual symbolic processing, showing no significant order preference.

Conclusions:

• Arithmetic processing is sensitive to the linguistic representation of number words.
• Bilinguals exposed to both inverted and non-inverted systems exhibit greater cognitive flexibility.
• Numerical mental representations are not solely shaped by the first language (L1) but remain open to influence from a second language (L2).