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Adaptive Spontaneous Transitions between Two Mechanisms of Numerical Averaging
We investigated the mechanism with which humans estimate numerical averages. Participants were presented with 4, 8 or 16 (two-digit) numbers, serially and rapidly (2 numerals/second) and were instructed to convey the sequence average. As predicted by a dual, but not a single-component account, we fo...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4455229/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26041580 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep10415 |
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author | Brezis, Noam Bronfman, Zohar Z. Usher, Marius |
author_facet | Brezis, Noam Bronfman, Zohar Z. Usher, Marius |
author_sort | Brezis, Noam |
collection | PubMed |
description | We investigated the mechanism with which humans estimate numerical averages. Participants were presented with 4, 8 or 16 (two-digit) numbers, serially and rapidly (2 numerals/second) and were instructed to convey the sequence average. As predicted by a dual, but not a single-component account, we found a non-monotonic influence of set-size on accuracy. Moreover, we observed a marked decrease in RT as set-size increases and RT-accuracy tradeoff in the 4-, but not in the 16-number condition. These results indicate that in accordance with the normative directive, participants spontaneously employ analytic/sequential thinking in the 4-number condition and intuitive/holistic thinking in the 16-number condition. When the presentation rate is extreme (10 items/sec) we find that, while performance still remains high, the estimations are now based on intuitive processing. The results are accounted for by a computational model postulating population-coding underlying intuitive-averaging and working-memory-mediated symbolic procedures underlying analytical-averaging, with flexible allocation between the two. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4455229 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-44552292015-06-10 Adaptive Spontaneous Transitions between Two Mechanisms of Numerical Averaging Brezis, Noam Bronfman, Zohar Z. Usher, Marius Sci Rep Article We investigated the mechanism with which humans estimate numerical averages. Participants were presented with 4, 8 or 16 (two-digit) numbers, serially and rapidly (2 numerals/second) and were instructed to convey the sequence average. As predicted by a dual, but not a single-component account, we found a non-monotonic influence of set-size on accuracy. Moreover, we observed a marked decrease in RT as set-size increases and RT-accuracy tradeoff in the 4-, but not in the 16-number condition. These results indicate that in accordance with the normative directive, participants spontaneously employ analytic/sequential thinking in the 4-number condition and intuitive/holistic thinking in the 16-number condition. When the presentation rate is extreme (10 items/sec) we find that, while performance still remains high, the estimations are now based on intuitive processing. The results are accounted for by a computational model postulating population-coding underlying intuitive-averaging and working-memory-mediated symbolic procedures underlying analytical-averaging, with flexible allocation between the two. Nature Publishing Group 2015-06-04 /pmc/articles/PMC4455229/ /pubmed/26041580 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep10415 Text en Copyright © 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
spellingShingle | Article Brezis, Noam Bronfman, Zohar Z. Usher, Marius Adaptive Spontaneous Transitions between Two Mechanisms of Numerical Averaging |
title | Adaptive Spontaneous Transitions between Two Mechanisms of Numerical Averaging |
title_full | Adaptive Spontaneous Transitions between Two Mechanisms of Numerical Averaging |
title_fullStr | Adaptive Spontaneous Transitions between Two Mechanisms of Numerical Averaging |
title_full_unstemmed | Adaptive Spontaneous Transitions between Two Mechanisms of Numerical Averaging |
title_short | Adaptive Spontaneous Transitions between Two Mechanisms of Numerical Averaging |
title_sort | adaptive spontaneous transitions between two mechanisms of numerical averaging |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4455229/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26041580 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep10415 |
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