Abstract
Magnitude estimation has been studied since the beginnings of scientific psychology and constitutes a fundamental aspect of human behavior. Yet, it has apparently never been noticed that estimates depend on the spatial arrangement used. We tested 167 adults in three experiments to show that the spatial layout of stimuli and responses systematically distorts number estimation, length production, and weight reproduction performance. The direction of distortion depends on the observer’s counting habits, but does not seem to reflect the use of spatially associated number concepts. Our results imply that all quantitative estimates are contaminated by a “spell of space” whenever stimuli or responses are spatially distributed.
Highlights
Our behavior includes and requires constant assessments of magnitudes around us: how we estimate the number and weight of objects, as well as distances and durations, determines our actions
One of the few exceptions to this general state of the literature is the work of Polzella, DaPolito, and Hinsman (1977) who reported that the duration of dot patterns flashed to the left visual field is perceived to be shorter than the duration of the same stimuli flashed to the right visual field
Data from one participant were discarded and the remaining 34 data sets were analyzed with a mixed-factors analyses of variance (ANOVA) to evaluate the effects of screen location and counting preference on verbal numerosity estimates
Summary
Our behavior includes and requires constant assessments of magnitudes around us: how we estimate the number and weight of objects, as well as distances and durations, determines our actions. One of the few exceptions to this general state of the literature is the work of Polzella, DaPolito, and Hinsman (1977) who reported that the duration of dot patterns flashed to the left visual field is perceived to be shorter than the duration of the same stimuli flashed to the right visual field. This is an early report of a profound association between perceptual quantity and space.
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