Cw. Lau et R. Hoosain, Working memory and language difference in sound duration: A comparison of mental arithmetic in Chinese, Japanese, and English, PSYCHOLOGIA, 42(3), 1999, pp. 139-144
Variation in cross-national achievement in mathematics has been attributed
to differences in cultural values, school curricula, or the manner in which
languages code numerical values. This study investigates the possibility t
hat they are related to the sound duration of number names, in the context
of the functioning of working memory. Chinese has the shortest durations fo
r number names, followed by Japanese and then English. Digit span in the th
ree languages reflects this ordering. Twelve native adult speakers for each
language were tested for mental arithmetic and showed the same ordering in
performance. This difference was eliminated when they carried out mental a
rithmetic with articulatory suppression. Language differences in facility f
or information processing can be considered a new aspect of the linguistic
relativity hypothesis.