Journal article

Publication year: 2022

Pages: 943-959

Journal: Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics

Volume number: 84

Issue number: 3

ISSN: 1943-3921

eISSN: 1943-393X

Open access status: Hybrid

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-021-02427-6

Publisher: Springer

Abstract: 
The Approximate Number System (ANS) is conceptualized as an innate cognitive system that allows humans to perceive numbers of objects or events (>4) in a fuzzy, imprecise manner. The representation of numbers is assumed to be abstract and not bound to a particular sense. In the present study, we test the assumption of a shared cross-sensory system. We investigated approximate number processing in the haptic modality and compared performance to that of the visual modality. We used a dot comparison task (DCT), in which participants compare two dot arrays and decide which one contains more dots. In the haptic DCT, 67 participants had to compare two simultaneously presented dot arrays with the palms of their hands; in the visual DCT, participants inspected and compared dot arrays on a screen. Tested ratios ranged from 2.0 (larger/smaller number) to 1.1. As expected, in both the haptic and the visual DCT responses similarly depended on the ratio of the numbers of dots in the two arrays. However, on an individual level, we found evidence against medium or stronger positive correlations between "ANS acuity" in the visual and haptic DCTs. A regression model furthermore revealed that besides number, spacing-related features of dot patterns (e.g., the pattern's convex hull) contribute to the percept of numerosity in both modalities. Our results contradict the strong theory of the ANS solely processing number and being independent of a modality. According to our regression and response prediction model, our results rather point towards a modality-specific integration of number and number-related features.

Harvard Citation style: Ziegler, M. and Drewing, K. (2022) Get in touch with numbers - an approximate number comparison task in the haptic modality, Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 84(3), pp. 943-959. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-021-02427-6

APA Citation style: Ziegler, M., & Drewing, K. (2022). Get in touch with numbers - an approximate number comparison task in the haptic modality. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics. 84(3), 943-959. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-021-02427-6