Learning number notations – Comparison of a sign-value and place-value system

Although numbers are universal, there are great differences between languages and cultures in terms of how they are represented. Numerical notation can influence number processing. Two well-known types of notational systems are sign-value, such as the Roman numeral system, and place-value systems, such as the Indo-Arabic numeral system. What is involved in learning each system? Here we report a study that investigated adults’ abilities to implicitly learn an artificially created sign-value or place-value system. We asked if they could perform symbolic comparison and ordering tasks using the novel symbol system. We found adults could learn the ordinal meaning of symbols within either system and were able to extend the system to symbols not encountered during training. There was a relative advantage of the sign-value system over the place-value system for expressions encountered during the training, but also for expressions that had not previously been encountered. These results shed light on how easily the structure of place-value and sign-value systems can be learned.