Top-Down Number Reading: Language Affects the Visual Identification of Digit Strings.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Psycholinguistics
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Number reading integrates visual digit analysis and verbal number word production.
• Current cognitive models primarily propose a feed-forward (visual-to-verbal) information flow.
• The influence of verbal processes on visual input during number reading is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the directionality of information flow between visual and verbal processes in number reading.
• To determine if verbal production influences visual analysis of digit strings.
• To examine the role of language-specific number structures in modulating this interaction.

Main Methods:

• Participants read aloud briefly presented multi-digit numbers in Hebrew and Arabic.
• Hebrew number words follow digit order (e.g., 21 = twenty-one).
• Arabic number words reverse digit order (e.g., 21 = one-and-twenty).
• Error rates were analyzed based on digit position and language.
• Control conditions used numbers with zeros to isolate verbal confounds.

Main Results:

• Language significantly affected error patterns in number reading.
• Arabic, with its reversed number word order, showed earlier unit digit and later decade digit processing compared to Hebrew.
• This language-dependent processing bias originated at the visual level.
• The effect persisted even when controlling for verbal word position.

Conclusions:

• Information flow during number reading is bidirectional (verbal-to-visual and visual-to-verbal).
• The visual scanning order of digits is not fixed but is modulated by the language of number production.
• This demonstrates a top-down influence of verbal processes on visual perception during number reading.