ABSTRACT
An interesting aspect of numbers is that they can be presented in different formats. Although numbers are associated spontaneously with arabic digits, they can also be represented as Roman numerals (e.g., MMIV), sequences of words (both spoken and written), or in an analogue form (e.g., dots on a die, tallies on a sheet of paper, or bar graphs). This raises the question of how numbers in the different formats are processed. What are the commonalities and what are the differences? I will first deal with the analogue displays, which have a meaning both for humans and animals, and I will then continue with the verbal and the arabic numerals, which are uniquely human achievements. In line with McCloskey and Macaruso (1995), I will use the term number for format-independent aspects of numerical cognition and the term numeral to refer to modality-specific representations (i.e., analogue, verbal, and arabic numerals).
