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Counting within the Subitizing Range: The Effect of Number of Distractors on the Perception of Subset Items

When exploring the mechanisms involved in perceiving numbers we must distinguish between two types of numbers: subset numbers (e.g., perceiving "2" when two plates and one cup are displayed on a table) and the total number of items (e.g., perceiving "3" objects in the previous ex...

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Autores principales: Goldfarb, Liat, Levy, Sharon
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3774637/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24066111
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0074152
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author Goldfarb, Liat
Levy, Sharon
author_facet Goldfarb, Liat
Levy, Sharon
author_sort Goldfarb, Liat
collection PubMed
description When exploring the mechanisms involved in perceiving numbers we must distinguish between two types of numbers: subset numbers (e.g., perceiving "2" when two plates and one cup are displayed on a table) and the total number of items (e.g., perceiving "3" objects in the previous example). Combining feature perception theories with number perception theories, the current paper explores the mechanisms involved in the perception of small numbers in feature-defined subsets. The paper introduces several theories for how subset items can be represented and examines an important prediction of those theories: Will the number of distractors affect the perception of small subset items? In two experiments, we found that the response time (RT) for counting small target items that differ from their distractors by a single feature was faster when there were few distractors compared to many distractors. This was found for different types of distractors: distractors within and outside the subitizing range. Only when distractors were organized in a specific pattern, allowing distractor grouping, the increase in the number of distractors did not affect target counting. The current study suggests that even when performing simple counting of subset targets, the enumeration process can begin only once the locations of the targets have been identified and the targets' shape is bound to these locations. This pre-counting procedure depends on the number of individual locations occupied by the distractors. These findings are further discussed within the context of the object file theory.
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spelling pubmed-37746372013-09-24 Counting within the Subitizing Range: The Effect of Number of Distractors on the Perception of Subset Items Goldfarb, Liat Levy, Sharon PLoS One Research Article When exploring the mechanisms involved in perceiving numbers we must distinguish between two types of numbers: subset numbers (e.g., perceiving "2" when two plates and one cup are displayed on a table) and the total number of items (e.g., perceiving "3" objects in the previous example). Combining feature perception theories with number perception theories, the current paper explores the mechanisms involved in the perception of small numbers in feature-defined subsets. The paper introduces several theories for how subset items can be represented and examines an important prediction of those theories: Will the number of distractors affect the perception of small subset items? In two experiments, we found that the response time (RT) for counting small target items that differ from their distractors by a single feature was faster when there were few distractors compared to many distractors. This was found for different types of distractors: distractors within and outside the subitizing range. Only when distractors were organized in a specific pattern, allowing distractor grouping, the increase in the number of distractors did not affect target counting. The current study suggests that even when performing simple counting of subset targets, the enumeration process can begin only once the locations of the targets have been identified and the targets' shape is bound to these locations. This pre-counting procedure depends on the number of individual locations occupied by the distractors. These findings are further discussed within the context of the object file theory. Public Library of Science 2013-09-16 /pmc/articles/PMC3774637/ /pubmed/24066111 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0074152 Text en © 2013 Goldfarb, Levy http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Goldfarb, Liat
Levy, Sharon
Counting within the Subitizing Range: The Effect of Number of Distractors on the Perception of Subset Items
title Counting within the Subitizing Range: The Effect of Number of Distractors on the Perception of Subset Items
title_full Counting within the Subitizing Range: The Effect of Number of Distractors on the Perception of Subset Items
title_fullStr Counting within the Subitizing Range: The Effect of Number of Distractors on the Perception of Subset Items
title_full_unstemmed Counting within the Subitizing Range: The Effect of Number of Distractors on the Perception of Subset Items
title_short Counting within the Subitizing Range: The Effect of Number of Distractors on the Perception of Subset Items
title_sort counting within the subitizing range: the effect of number of distractors on the perception of subset items
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3774637/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24066111
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0074152
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