Department of Psychology and the Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2010 Jul;36(4):1053-9. doi: 10.1037/a0019766.
Extraction of numerosity (i.e., enumeration) is an essential component of mathematical abilities. The current study asked how automatic is the processing of numerosity and whether automatic activation is task dependent. Participants were presented with displays containing a variable number of digits and were asked to pay attention to the number of digits or to their numerical value, in separate blocks. Effects of task were tested with a comparative judgment task and a parity judgment task. In the comparative judgment task, participants had to indicate whether the numerosity or the numerical value of the digits was smaller or larger than 5. In the parity judgment task, participants had to indicate whether this value was odd or even. Irrelevant numerical values modulated performance regardless of task. In contrast, irrelevant numerosities modulated performance only in the comparative judgment task. These results suggest that numerical value is activated automatically, whereas activation of numerosity is modulated by task. We suggest that the differences observed are related to different cognitive and neural mechanisms recruited by these tasks.
数量提取（即计数）是数学能力的重要组成部分。本研究旨在探讨数量处理的自动化程度以及自动激活是否依赖于任务。在单独的模块中，参与者会看到包含不同数量数字的显示，并被要求关注数字的数量或其数值。通过比较判断任务和奇偶判断任务来测试任务的效果。在比较判断任务中，参与者必须指示数字的数量或数值是小于还是大于 5。在奇偶判断任务中，参与者必须指示该值是奇数还是偶数。无论任务如何，无关的数值都会影响表现。相比之下，在比较判断任务中，无关的数量仅会影响表现。这些结果表明，数值会自动激活，而数量的激活则受到任务的调节。我们认为，观察到的差异与这些任务所涉及的不同认知和神经机制有关。
