Tokita Midori, Ashitani Yui, Ishiguchi Akira
Graduate School of Humanities and Sciences, Ochanomizu University, 2-1-1 Otsuka, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 112-8610, Japan,
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2013 Nov;75(8):1852-61. doi: 10.3758/s13414-013-0526-x.
The numerosity of any set of discrete elements can be depicted by a genuinely abstract number representation, irrespective of whether they are presented in the visual or auditory modality. The accumulator model predicts that no cost should apply for comparing numerosities within and across modalities. However, in behavioral studies, some inconsistencies have been apparent in the performance of number comparisons among different modalities. In this study, we tested whether and how numerical comparisons of visual, auditory, and cross-modal presentations would differ under adequate control of stimulus presentation. We measured the Weber fractions and points of subjective equality of numerical discrimination in visual, auditory, and cross-modal conditions. The results demonstrated differences between the performances in visual and auditory conditions, such that numerical discrimination of an auditory sequence was more precise than that of a visual sequence. The performance of cross-modal trials lay between performance levels in the visual and auditory conditions. Moreover, the number of visual stimuli was overestimated as compared to that of auditory stimuli. Our findings imply that the process of approximate numerical representation is complex and involves multiple stages, including accumulation and decision processes.
任何一组离散元素的数量都可以通过真正抽象的数字表征来描绘，无论这些元素是以视觉还是听觉形式呈现。累加器模型预测，在不同模态内和跨模态比较数量时不应有成本。然而，在行为研究中，不同模态间数字比较的表现存在一些明显的不一致。在本研究中，我们测试了在充分控制刺激呈现的情况下，视觉、听觉和跨模态呈现的数字比较是否以及如何存在差异。我们测量了视觉、听觉和跨模态条件下数字辨别力的韦伯分数和主观相等点。结果表明视觉和听觉条件下的表现存在差异，即听觉序列的数字辨别比视觉序列更精确。跨模态试验的表现介于视觉和听觉条件下的表现水平之间。此外，与听觉刺激相比，视觉刺激的数量被高估了。我们的研究结果表明，近似数字表征的过程很复杂，涉及多个阶段，包括累加和决策过程。
