Regular Distribution Inhibits Generic Numerosity Processing.

Wei Liu,Miao Wang,Zhijun Zhang,Yajun Zhao

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02080

Wei Liu, Miao Wang + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02080

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Abstract

This study investigated the role of pattern regularity in approximate numerical processing. Experiment 1 demonstrated that the change in stimulus size has a distinct effect on the adaptation aftereffect for random and regular patterns. For regular patterns, adapting to large patterns and being tested with small patterns caused stronger aftereffects than the reverse treatment, in which the participants adapted to small patterns and were tested with large patterns. For random patterns, this effect was absent. Experiment 2 revealed a distinct connectedness effect on the numerosity processing of random and regular patterns. For random patterns, reference stimuli were perceived to contain fewer items when the dots were connected by lines than when they were not connected, and the number of items in the connected reference was further underestimated when the participants adapted to unconnected patterns with the same number of dots. For regular patterns, this effect was absent. Distinct mechanisms were thus suggested for the numerosity coding of random and regular patterns. For random patterns, the change in primary texture features would be abstracted from numerosity processing, while connectedness could affect this coding by affecting the processing of numerical unit individuation. For regular patterns, generic numerosity processing is inhibited, and numerical judgments appear to be inferred from the visual processing results of texture features such as dot size or the distance between adjacent dots.

Highlights

Numerosity cognition is accompanied by the processing of a combination of visual features (Dehaene, 1992; Franconeri et al, 2009)
Dot size has a distinct effect on numerosity adaptation with random and regular distributed patterns
The change in stimulus size has no effect on adaptation

Summary

Introduction

Numerosity cognition is accompanied by the processing of a combination of visual features (Dehaene, 1992; Franconeri et al, 2009). Previous studies have suggested the independence of numerosity processing from the processes associated with texture features, and the abstraction process is suggested to be part of numerosity coding (Burr and Ross, 2008a,b; Liu et al, 2012, 2013). These studies have been challenged by other studies indicating that perceived numerosity is affected by some visual features, such as size, contrast, and density (Dakin et al, 2011; Raphael et al, 2013; Raphael and Morgan, 2015). Other researchers have argued that this adaptation could occur via more general texture-like mechanisms, relying on features such as dot size or texture density adaptation (Durgin, 2008)

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