Grasso Paolo A, Anobile Giovanni, Arrighi Roberto
Department of Neuroscience, Psychology, Pharmacology, and Child Health, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
J Vis. 2021 Jan 4;21(1):12. doi: 10.1167/jov.21.1.12.
Like other perceptual attributes, numerosity is susceptible to adaptation. Nevertheless, it has never been fully investigated whether adaptation to numerosity is fully perceptual in nature or if it stems from the mixed influence of perception and attention. In the present work, we addressed this point throughout three separate experiments aiming at investigating the potential role played by visuo-spatial attentional mechanisms in shaping numerosity perception and adaptation. In Experiments 1 and 2, we showed that the magnitude of numerosity adaptation can be strongly influenced by the distribution of numerosity-contingent visuo-spatial attentional resources during the adaptation period. Results from Experiment 1 revealed a robust reduction of adaptation magnitude whenever a second numerical stimulus was presented in a diametrically opposite location from that of the adaptor, despite this second adapter being neutral as matched in numerosity with the following stimulus displayed in that location. In Experiment 2, we showed that this reduction in adaptation did not occur in cases where the second stimulus was not numerical, suggesting that attentional resources specifically related to numerosity information accounts for the results of Experiment 1. Finally, in Experiment 3, we showed that uninformative visuo-spatial cues shape numerosity discrimination judgments both at baseline and during adaptation. Taken together, our results seem to indicate that visuo-spatial attention plays a relevant role in numerosity perception and that adaptation to numerosity is actively influenced by this cognitive process.
与其他感知属性一样，数量感知也容易受到适应的影响。然而，数量适应在本质上是否完全是感知性的，或者它是否源于感知和注意力的混合影响，这一点从未得到充分研究。在本研究中，我们通过三个独立的实验来探讨这一问题，旨在研究视觉空间注意机制在塑造数量感知和适应过程中所起的潜在作用。在实验1和实验2中，我们发现，在适应期内，数量适应的程度会受到与数量相关的视觉空间注意资源分布的强烈影响。实验1的结果显示，每当在与适应刺激完全相反的位置呈现第二个数字刺激时，适应程度就会显著降低，尽管这个第二个刺激在数量上与随后在该位置显示的刺激相匹配且为中性。在实验2中，我们发现，当第二个刺激不是数字时，适应程度的降低并不会发生，这表明与数量信息特定相关的注意资源可以解释实验1的结果。最后，在实验3中，我们发现，在基线期和适应期，无信息的视觉空间线索都会影响数量辨别判断。综合来看，我们的结果似乎表明，视觉空间注意在数量感知中发挥着重要作用，并且数量适应会受到这一认知过程的积极影响。
