Number versus Continuous Quantity in Numerosity Judgments by Fish

Autor/inn/en	Agrillo, Christian; Piffer, Laura; Bisazza, Angelo
Titel	Number versus Continuous Quantity in Numerosity Judgments by Fish
Quelle	In: Cognition, 119 (2011) 2, S.281-287 (7 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0010-0277
DOI	10.1016/j.cognition.2010.10.022
Schlagwörter	Animals; Discrimination Learning; Hypothesis Testing; Visual Stimuli; Visual Perception; Cognitive Processes; Numbers + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Animal; Tier; Tiere; Lernen; Lernprozess; Hypothesenprüfung; Hypothesentest; Visuelle Wahrnehmung; Cognitive process; Kognitiver Prozess; Zahlenraum
Abstract	In quantity discrimination tasks, adults, infants and animals have been sometimes observed to process number only after all continuous variables, such as area or density, have been controlled for. This has been taken as evidence that processing number may be more cognitively demanding than processing continuous variables. We tested this hypothesis by training mosquitofish to discriminate two items from three in three different conditions. In one condition, continuous variables were controlled while numerical information was available; in another, the number was kept constant and information relating to continuous variables was available; in the third condition, stimuli differed for both number and continuous quantities. Fish learned to discriminate more quickly when both number and continuous information were available compared to when they could use continuous information only or number only; there was no difference in the learning rate between the two latter conditions. Our results do not support the hypothesis that processing numbers imposes a higher cognitive load than processing continuous variables. Rather, they suggest that availability of multiple information sources may facilitate discrimination learning. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10