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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 July 2017
Visual number comparison does not require participants to choose a unit, whereas units are fundamental to the definition of number. Studies using magnitude estimation rather than comparison show that number perception is compressed dramatically past about 20 units. Even estimates of 5–20 items are increasingly susceptible to effects of visual adaptation, suggesting a rather narrow range in which subitizing-like categorization processes blend into greater reliance on adaptable magnitude information.
Target article
From “sense of number” to “sense of magnitude”: The role of continuous magnitudes in numerical cognition
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