Yes, the behavior of those 4 keys is Windows standard. Therefore there are no commands in key mapping configuration dialog for moving caret to next/previous character/word.

But it is in general possible to reverse the behavior by creating 4 macros with hotkeys stored all together in one macro file being configured for automatic load on startup of UltraEdit.

Macro NextChar with hotkey Ctrl + RIGHT ARROW has the command Key RIGHT ARROW.
Macro NextWord with hotkey RIGHT ARROW has the command Key Ctrl+RIGHT ARROW.
Macro PreviousChar with hotkey Ctrl + LEFT ARROW has the command Key LEFT ARROW.
Macro PreviousWord with hotkey LEFT ARROW has the command Key Ctrl+LEFT ARROW.

Those 4 macros are active within document window only for all editing modes (hex editing mode (text area), normal and column editing mode), but not for example in edit fields of Replace dialog or any other dialog.

And of course holding Shift and pressing the Right/Left arrows with/without Ctrl results still in standard Windows caret moving with selection behavior. But maybe even this can be also changed with 4 more macros. I did not test it.

I would not make use of the macros to change the behavior for the caret moving commands. I think, better would be to configure key repeat delay to a low value and key repeat rate to maximum in Windows keyboard configuration dialog to more quickly move caret left/right character by character.