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Over-estimation in numerosity estimation tasks: more than an attentional bias?
Virginie Crollen1, Xavier Seron
1Institut de Recherche en Sciences Psychologiques (IPSY), Centre de Neuroscience Système et Cognition (NeuroCS), Université Catholique de Louvain, Place Cardinal Mercier 10, B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. virginie.crollen@uclouvain.be
Acta Psychologica
|June 12, 2012
Summary
Operational momentum explains over-estimation in numerosity tasks, not just attentional bias. Cognitive mapping of numerical representations drives this over-estimation, regardless of mental number line displacement direction.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Numerical cognition
Background:
- Numerosity estimation and approximate arithmetic tasks can result in over- or under-estimation.
- Two models, the bi-directional mapping account and the operational momentum hypothesis, attempt to explain these performance patterns.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if the operational momentum hypothesis can explain the over-estimation observed in numerosity estimation tasks.
- To differentiate between attentional bias and cognitive mapping as causes of over-estimation.
Main Methods:
- Three experiments were conducted involving symbolic to non-symbolic numerical mapping.
- Participants performed tasks with rightward or leftward displacements along the mental number line.
Main Results:
- Over-estimation was consistently observed across all three tasks.
- The direction and size of the mental number line displacement did not influence the over-estimation.
Conclusions:
- Over-estimation in numerosity tasks is not solely due to attentional bias.
- The findings support the role of the cognitive operation of mapping differently scaled numerical representations in driving over-estimation.
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