How learning influences non-symbolic numerical processing: effects of feedback in the dot comparison task

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Visual Perception
• Numerical Cognition

Background:

• Human numerosity estimation relies on processing sets of elements.
• Continuous visual properties, like dot size and arrangement, influence numerosity judgments.
• The impact of learning and experience on visual cue influence in numerosity tasks is not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how learning with feedback affects the influence of visual properties on numerosity estimation.
• To determine if feedback differentially impacts the influence of specific visual cues (dot diameter, convex hull).

Main Methods:

• Participants performed a dot comparison task (identifying the more numerous array).
• A learning phase introduced trial-by-trial feedback for an experimental group; a control group received no feedback.
• Visual properties (convex hull, average dot diameter) were manipulated congruently and incongruently with numerosity.

Main Results:

• Feedback did not alter overall performance but selectively reduced the impact of dot diameter in the experimental group.
• The reduced influence of dot diameter persisted even when combined with convex hull manipulation.
• Performance on incongruent dot size trials correlated with arithmetic task performance, but not inhibition task performance.

Conclusions:

• Learning with feedback can selectively alter the weighting of specific visual cues in numerosity judgments.
• Sensory integration models, involving weighted cue combinations, may explain these findings.
• Future research should explore which visual properties are susceptible to learning and the conditions under which learning occurs.