Department of Developmental Neuroscience, Stella Maris Scientific Institute, Calambrone Pisa, Italy.
Department of Translational Research on New Technologies in Medicines and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2018 Sep 11;8(1):13571. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-31893-6.
How numerical quantity is processed is a central issue for cognition. On the one hand the "number sense theory" claims that numerosity is perceived directly, and may represent an early precursor for acquisition of mathematical skills. On the other, the "theory of magnitude" notes that numerosity correlates with many continuous properties such as size and density, and may therefore not exist as an independent feature, but be part of a more general system of magnitude. In this study we examined interactions in sensitivity between numerosity and size perception. In a group of children, we measured psychophysically two sensory parameters: perceptual adaptation and discrimination thresholds for both size and numerosity. Neither discrimination thresholds nor adaptation strength for numerosity and size correlated across participants. This clear lack of correlation (confirmed by Bayesian analyses) suggests that numerosity and size interference effects are unlikely to reflect a shared sensory representation. We suggest these small interference effects may rather result from top-down phenomena occurring at late decisional levels rather than a primary "sense of magnitude".
数量如何被加工是认知的一个核心问题。一方面，“数量感理论”声称数量是直接感知的，可能是获得数学技能的早期前兆。另一方面，“大小理论”指出，数量与大小和密度等许多连续属性相关，因此可能不存在独立的特征，而是作为更一般的大小系统的一部分。在这项研究中，我们研究了数量和大小感知之间的敏感性相互作用。在一组儿童中，我们测量了两个感觉参数的心理物理学：大小和数量的感知适应和辨别阈限。数量和大小的辨别阈限或适应强度在参与者之间均无相关性。这种明显缺乏相关性（通过贝叶斯分析得到证实）表明，数量和大小的干扰效应不太可能反映共享的感觉表示。我们认为这些小的干扰效应可能更多地来自于晚期决策水平的自上而下的现象，而不是主要的“大小感”。
