Distinct strategies for estimating the temporal average of numerical and perceptual information

Humans can estimate global trends in dynamic information presented either as perceptual features or as symbolic codes such as numbers. Previous studies on temporal statistics estimation have shown that observers judge the temporal average of visual attributes according to information from the last few frames of the presentation sequence (in what is referred to as the recency effect). Here, we investigated how humans estimate the temporal average of number vs. orientation using identical stimuli for the two tasks. In Experiment 1, a randomly-selected single-digit number was serially presented at orientations randomly varying over time. In Experiment 2, a texture comprising a random number of Gabor elements was shown at orientations randomly varying over time. In both experiments, observers judged the temporal averages of the numerical values and orientations in separate blocks. Results showed that observers judging the temporal average of orientation relied upon information from later frames as predicted by a typical model of perceptual decision making. By contrast, for the judgement of numerical values, we found that the impacts of each temporal frame were constant or varied little across temporal frames regardless of whether the numerical information was given as digits or by the number of texture elements. The results are interpreted as evidence that distinct computational strategies may be involved in estimating the temporal averages of perceptual features and numerical information.