The complexity of simple counting: ERP findings reveal early perceptual and late numerical processes in different arrangements

The counting process can only be fully understood when taking into account the visual characteristics of the sets counted. Comparing behavioral data as well as event-related brain potentials (ERPs) evoked by different task-irrelevant arrangements of dots during an exact enumeration task, we aimed to investigate the effect of illusory contour detection on the counting process while other grouping cues like proximity were controlled and dot sparsity did not provide a cue to the numerosity of sets. Adult participants (N = 37) enumerated dots (8–12) in irregular and two different types of regular arrangements which differed in the shape of their illusory dot lattices. Enumeration speed was affected by both arrangement and magnitude. The type of arrangement influenced an early ERP negativity peaking at about 270 ms after stimulus onset, whereas numerosity only affected later ERP components (> 300 ms). We also observed that without perceptual cues, magnitude was constructed at a later stage of cognitive processing. We suggest that chunking is a prerequisite for more fluent counting which influences automatic processing (< 300 ms) during enumeration. We conclude that the procedure of exact enumeration depends on the interaction of several perceptual and numerical processes that are influenced by magnitude and arrangement.