Subitizing is the immediate apprehension of the exact number of items in small sets. Despite more than a 100years of research around this phenomenon, its nature and origin are still unknown. One view posits that it reflects a number estimation process common for small and large sets, which precision decreases as the number of items increases, according to Weber's law. Another view proposes that it reflects a non-numerical mechanism of visual indexing of multiple objects in parallel that is limited in capacity. In a previous research we have gathered evidence against the Weberian estimation hypothesis. Here we provide first direct evidence for the alternative object indexing hypothesis, and show that subitizing reflects a domain general mechanism shared with other tasks that require multiple object individuation.

Subitizing reflects visuo-spatial object indexing capacity

Piazza, Manuela;Fumarola, Antonia;Chinello, Alessandro;Melcher, David Paul
2011-01-01

Abstract

Subitizing is the immediate apprehension of the exact number of items in small sets. Despite more than a 100years of research around this phenomenon, its nature and origin are still unknown. One view posits that it reflects a number estimation process common for small and large sets, which precision decreases as the number of items increases, according to Weber's law. Another view proposes that it reflects a non-numerical mechanism of visual indexing of multiple objects in parallel that is limited in capacity. In a previous research we have gathered evidence against the Weberian estimation hypothesis. Here we provide first direct evidence for the alternative object indexing hypothesis, and show that subitizing reflects a domain general mechanism shared with other tasks that require multiple object individuation.
2011
1
Piazza, Manuela; Fumarola, Antonia; Chinello, Alessandro; Melcher, David Paul
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11572/88205
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