Digit Span and Articulatory Suppression: A Cross-linguistic Comparison

Native speakers of six languages (Chinese, English, Finnish, Greek, Spanish and Swedish) were tested for digit span with and without articulatory suppression. The results showed that under control conditions Chinese speakers obtained a larger digit span than speakers of the remaining languages, who did not differ among themselves. However, under articulatory suppression, these differences were eliminated and suppressed digit span was equivalent across the languages. These findings provide empirical support for the view that attributes cross-linguistic differences in digit span to variation in the articulatory duration of digit names and the rate of subvocal rehearsal between languages.