Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T08:19:06.769Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Evidence for a number sense

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2017

David C. Burr*
Affiliation:
Department of Neuroscience, University of Florence, 50135 Florence, Italydavidcharles.burr@unifi.ithttp://www.pisavisionlab.org/

Abstract

Numerosity is inherently confounded by related stimulus attributes such as density and area, and many studies have reported interactions of various strengths between area, density, and numerosity. However, direct measurements of sensitivity within the area-density-numerosity space show that numerosity emerges as the most spontaneous and sensitive dimension, strongly supporting the existence of a dedicated number sense.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anobile, G., Arrighi, R., Togoli, I. & Burr, D. C. (2016a) A shared numerical representation for action and perception. Elife 5:e16161. doi: 10.7554/eLife.16161.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anobile, G., Castaldi, E., Turi, M., Tinelli, F. & Burr, D. C. (2016b) Numerosity but not texture-density discrimination correlates with math ability in children. Developmental Psychology 52(8):1206–16. doi: 10.1037/dev0000155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anobile, G., Cicchini, G. M. & Burr, D. C. (2016c) Number as a primary perceptual attribute: A review. Perception 45 (1–2):531. doi: 10.1177/0301006615602599.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Arrighi, R., Togoli, I. & Burr, D. C. (2014) A generalized sense of number. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 281:20141791. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.1791 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Binda, P., Morrone, M. C. & Bremmer, F. (2012) Saccadic compression of symbolic numerical magnitude. PLoS ONE 7(11):e49587. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0049587.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, S. W. (1995) Time, change, and motion: The effects of stimulus movement on temporal perception. Perception and Psychophysics 57(1):105–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burr, D. C. & Ross, J. (1986) Visual processing of motion. Trends in Neurosciences 9:304307. doi: 10.1016/0166-2236(86)90088-3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burr, D. C., Ross, J., Binda, P. & Morrone, M. C. (2010) Saccades compress space, time and number. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 14(12):528–33. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2010.09.005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burr, D. C. & Thompson, P. (2011) Motion psychophysics: 19852010. Vision Research 51(13):1431–56. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2011.02.008.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cicchini, G. M., Anobile, G. & Burr, D. C. (2016) Spontaneous perception of numerosity in humans. Nature Communications 7:12536. doi: 10.1038/ncomms12536.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dakin, S. C., Tibber, M. S., Greenwood, J. A., Kingdom, F. A. A. & Morgan, M. J. (2011) A common visual metric for approximate number and density. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108(49):19552–57. doi: 10.1073/Pnas.1113195108.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dehaene, S., Bossini, S. & Giraux, P. (1993) The mental representation of parity and number magnitude. Journal of Experimental Psychology 122:371–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gebuis, T. & Reynvoet, B. (2012c) The role of visual information in numerosity estimation. PLoS ONE 7(5):e37426. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0037426.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gegenfurtner, K. R. & Hawken, M. J. (1996) Perceived velocity of luminance, chromatic and non-Fourier stimuli: Influence of contrast and temporal frequency. Vision Research 36(9):1281–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Halberda, J., Mazzocco, M. M. & Feigenson, L. (2008) Individual differences in non-verbal number acuity correlate with maths achievement. Nature 455(7213):665–68. doi: 10.1038/nature07246.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harvey, B. M., Fracasso, A., Petridou, N. & Dumoulin, S. O. (2015) Topographic representations of object size and relationships with numerosity reveal generalized quantity processing in human parietal cortex. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112(44):13525–30. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1515414112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harvey, B. M., Klein, B. P., Petridou, N. & Dumoulin, S. O. (2013) Topographic representation of numerosity in the human parietal cortex. Science 341(6150):1123–26. doi: 10.1126/science.1239052.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hubbard, E. M., Piazza, M., Pinel, P. & Dehaene, S. (2005) Interactions between number and space in parietal cortex. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6(6):435–48. doi: 10.1038/nrn1684.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Izard, V., Sann, C., Spelke, E. S. & Steri, A. (2009) Newborn infants perceive abstract numbers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106(25):10382–85.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kanai, R., Paffen, C. L., Hogendoorn, H. & Verstraten, F. A. (2006) Time dilation in dynamic visual display. Journal of Vision 6(12):1421–30. doi: 10.1167/6.12.8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaneko, S. & Murakami, I. (2009) Perceived duration of visual motion increases with speed. Journal of Vision 9(7):14. doi: 10.1167/9.7.14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacAdam, D. L. (1942) Visual sensitivities to color differences in daylight. Journal of the Optical Society of America 32(5):247–74. doi:10.1364/JOSA.32.000247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piazza, M. (2010) Neurocognitive start-up tools for symbolic number representations. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 14(12):542–51. doi: 10.1016/J.Tics.2010.09.008.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thompson, P. (1982) Perceived rate of movement depends on contrast. Vision Research 22(3):377–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walsh, V. (2003) A theory of magnitude: Common cortical metrics of time, space and quantity. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7(11):483–88. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2003.09.002.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Xuan, B., Zhang, D., He, S. & Chen, X. (2007) Larger stimuli are judged to last longer. Journal of Vision 7(10):2 15. doi: 10.1167/7.10.2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed