{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,6]],"date-time":"2026-01-06T13:06:46Z","timestamp":1767704806415,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,16]],"date-time":"2021-11-16T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1637020800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Brain Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This study investigated the effect of educational level and of the syntactic representation of numbers in Arabic on the task of transcoding two-digit numbers from dictation. The participants were primary, junior-high, and high school pupils and higher education students. All spoke Arabic as a mother tongue. They performed a transcoding task, namely writing two-digit numbers from dictation. Units first\\decades first writing patterns were collected depending on the differential syntactic structures of the two-digit number dictated (decades first: whole tens; units first: teen numbers; identical units and decades, remaining two-digit numbers). The findings reveal that in general, Arabic speakers adopt a decades-first writing pattern for two-digit numbers, especially when it is consistent with the syntactic structure of two-digit numbers, as in whole-tens numbers. This decade-first writing pattern is more evident and consistent in junior-high school, high school, and higher education than in primary school due to the improvement in mathematical skills and second and third languages. However, this pattern is modulated by the syntactic complexity of the unit\u2013decade structure. This complexity is more pronounced in two-digit numbers whose processing is more dependent on numerical syntax. Thus, whole-tens numbers, teen numbers, and identical-decade\u2013unit numbers are less complex than the remaining two-digit numbers.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/brainsci11111518","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,16]],"date-time":"2021-11-16T11:32:03Z","timestamp":1637062323000},"page":"1518","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Writing Units or Decades First in Two Digit Numbers Dictation Tasks: The Case of Arabic\u2014An Inverted Language"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"given":"Deia","family":"Ganayim","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Special Education Department, Al-Qasemi Academic College of Education, Baqa El-Garbiah 3010000, Israel"},{"name":"The Arab Center for Mind, Brain and Behavior (ACMBB), Sakhnin 3081000, Israel"},{"name":"Learning Disabilities Department, The College of Sakhnin for Teacher Education, Sakhnin 3081000, Israel"},{"name":"Educational Counselling Department, The Max Stern Yezreel Valley Academic College, Yezreel Valley 1930600, Israel"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Ann","family":"Dowker","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,11,16]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/0010-0277(92)90049-N","article-title":"Varieties of numerical abilities","volume":"44","author":"Dehaene","year":"1992","journal-title":"Cognition"},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Brizuela, B.M., and Cayton, G.A. 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