Liu Wei, Wang Chunhui, Zhao Xiaoke, Deng Shixin, Zhao Yajun, Zhang Zhijun
School of Education, Yunnan Minzu University, Kunming, China.
School of Education, Dali University, Dali, China.
Front Psychol. 2022 Sep 20;13:989680. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.989680. eCollection 2022.
A series of studies show interest in how visual attributes affect the estimate of object numbers in a scene. In comparison tasks, it is suggested that larger patches are perceived as more numerous. However, the inequality of density, which changes inversely with the area when numerosity remains constant, may mediate the influence of area on numerosity perception. This study aims to explore the role of area and density in the judgment of numerosity. The Ebbinghaus illusion paradigm was adopted to induce differences in the perceived, rather than the physical, area of the two patches to be compared. Participants were asked to compare the area, density, and the number of the two patches in three tasks. To this end, no PSE (point of subjective equality) bias was found in number comparison with randomly distributed dots, although a significant difference was revealed in the perceived area of the two patches. No PSE bias was found in the density comparison, either. For a comparison, density and number tasks were also conducted with regularly distributed dots. No PSE bias was found in density comparison. By contrast, significant PSE bias showed up in number comparison, and larger patches appeared to be more numerous than smaller patches. The density mechanism was proposed as the basis for number comparison with regular patterns. The individual Weber fractions for regular patterns were not correlated with those for random patterns in the number task, but they were correlated with those for both patterns in the density task. To summarize, numerosity is directly sensed, and numerosity perception is not affected by area inequality induced by the Ebbinghaus illusion. In contrast, density and area are combined to infer numerosity when the approximate numerosity mechanism is disrupted by dot distribution.
一系列研究关注视觉属性如何影响对场景中物体数量的估计。在比较任务中，有人提出较大的斑块会被感知为数量更多。然而，当数量保持不变时，密度的不均等与面积成反比变化，这可能会介导面积对数量感知的影响。本研究旨在探讨面积和密度在数量判断中的作用。采用埃宾浩斯错觉范式来诱导待比较的两个斑块在感知而非物理面积上的差异。参与者被要求在三项任务中比较两个斑块的面积、密度和数量。为此，在与随机分布的点进行数量比较时未发现主观相等点（PSE）偏差，尽管在两个斑块的感知面积上发现了显著差异。在密度比较中也未发现PSE偏差。作为对比，还对规则分布的点进行了密度和数量任务。在密度比较中未发现PSE偏差。相比之下，在数量比较中出现了显著的PSE偏差，并且较大的斑块似乎比小斑块数量更多。密度机制被提出作为与规则模式进行数量比较的基础。在数量任务中，规则模式的个体韦伯分数与随机模式的个体韦伯分数不相关，但在密度任务中，它们与两种模式的个体韦伯分数都相关。总之，数量是直接被感知的，数量感知不受埃宾浩斯错觉引起的面积不均等的影响。相反，当近似数量机制因点的分布而被打乱时，密度和面积会结合起来推断数量。
