For example, the Arabic digit
4, depending on the context,1 might not solely relate to the numerical magnitude of 4 apples carried in
a shopping bag but might also represent the 4th position of a runner in a marathon, thereby conveying
ordinal information. In other words, symbolic numerical knowledge is not merely characterized by
symbol–quantity relationships (i.e., the mapping of a symbol to the magnitude it represents) but also
characterized by symbol–symbol relationships (i.e., understanding the symbol as part of an ordered
sequence, similar to the alphabet that does not possess a symbol–quantity mapping).