Adaptation biases the parallel perception of subitized numerosities

Numerosity adaptation is a phenomenon in which prolonged exposure to a stimulus of greater numerosity makes subsequent stimuli appear less numerous, and vice versa. It has been confined to moderated numerosities outside the subitizing range (> 4). This study investigated whether the estimation of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports Vol. 14; no. 1; pp. 26014 - 10
Main Authors: Liu, Wei, Zhao, Xiaoke, Liu, Ying, Li, Yating, Li, Jingguang
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 29.10.2024
Nature Publishing Group
Nature Portfolio
Subjects:
631/378/2649
631/477
Adaptation
Adaptation, Physiological
Adult
Coefficient of variation
Color Perception - physiology
Estimation
Female
Gist perception
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Male
multidisciplinary
Numerosity adaptation
Parallel processing
Photic Stimulation
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Subitizing
Visual Perception - physiology
Young Adult
Parallel processing
Numerosity adaptation
Subitizing
Estimation
Gist perception
ISSN:2045-2322, 2045-2322
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Numerosity adaptation is a phenomenon in which prolonged exposure to a stimulus of greater numerosity makes subsequent stimuli appear less numerous, and vice versa. It has been confined to moderated numerosities outside the subitizing range (> 4). This study investigated whether the estimation of small numerosities (1–4), which is performed rapidly and accurately due to the mechanism of subitizing, is susceptible to adaptation. After adapting to a 50-dot stimulus, participants were presented with stimuli consisting of 1–5 color sets. In some trials, participants were informed of the target color-set before the presentation of stimuli, while in others, they were instructed afterwards. When estimating 1–4 dots in the single-color set or superset (the total dots), no adaptation effect was observed. The coefficient of variation (CV) was below 0.05, indicating the effective function of subitizing. However, when enumerating subsets in parallel, adaptation biased the estimation. The CV in estimating subitized numerosities was comparable to and correlated with that of estimating moderate numerosities (5–12), suggesting that subitizing was superseded by numerosity estimation. Greater effects arise when the targets were probed afterwards, with elevated CV. The prior adaptor may be more weighted to optimize detection of number deviations, especially under higher perceptual uncertainty.
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ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-024-76536-1