The Interplay between Nonsymbolic Number and Its Continuous Visual Properties

Autor/inn/en	Gebuis, Titia; Reynvoet, Bert
Titel	The Interplay between Nonsymbolic Number and Its Continuous Visual Properties
Quelle	In: Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141 (2012) 4, S.642-648 (7 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0096-3445
DOI	10.1037/a0026218
Schlagwörter	Number Systems; Cues; Stimuli; Visual Stimuli; Comparative Analysis; Numbers + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Number system; Zahlensystem; Stichwort; Anreizsystem; Zahlenraum
Abstract	To date, researchers investigating nonsymbolic number processes devoted little attention to the visual properties of their stimuli. This is unexpected, as nonsymbolic number is defined by its visual characteristics. When number changes, its visual properties change accordingly. In this study, we investigated the influence of different visual properties on nonsymbolic number processes and show that the current assumptions about the relation between number and its visual characteristics are incorrect. Similar to previous studies, we controlled the visual cues: Each visual cue was not predictive of number. Nevertheless, participants showed congruency effects induced by the visual properties of the stimuli. These congruency effects scaled with the number of visual cues manipulated, implicating that people do not extract number from a visual scene independent of its visual cues. Instead, number judgments are based on the integration of information from multiple visual cues. Consequently, current ways to control the visual cues of the number stimuli are insufficient, as they control only a single variable at the time. And, more important, the existence of an approximate number system that can extract number independent of the visual cues appears unlikely. We therefore propose that number judgment is the result of the weighing of several distinct visual cues. (Contains 3 figures and 1 footnote.) (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10