Temporal information affects the performance of numerosity discrimination: Behavioral evidence for a shared system for numerosity and temporal processing

In this study, we tested whether and how temporal information would affect the performance of numerosity discrimination in sequential events, in an attempt to make the relationship clear between temporal and numerosity processing. We manipulated the duration of event presentation (i.e., the stimulus duration) and the duration of the sequence (i.e., the total interval). We also employed three levels of standard event numbers (i.e., 5, 10, and 20) to test whether and how the effect would differ among event numbers. The results showed that temporal information affected the performance of numerosity discrimination; precision deteriorated when stimulus duration and the total interval were manipulated, and the number of events in the longer total interval were judged as less numerous than those in the shorter total interval across standard numbers. Accordingly, our results suggested the existence of a shared system between time and numerosity processing.     

Perceived numerosity of spatiotemporal events

Numerosity discrimination was examined when items were varied in space-time position rather than in space only. Observers were instructed to indicate which of two adjacent streamsof visual events contained more items. The precision of numerosity discrimination of dynamic events was not remarkably different from that of static patterns. Two basic numerosity biases previously found for static dot patterns—inhibitory overestimation and satellite underestimation—were demonstrated for items distributed randomly over a spatiotemporal interval. It was also demonstrated that two streams, equated in the number and luminous energy of items, are not judged equal in their visible number if items in one of these two streams have longer duration than items in the second stream. These findings can be accounted for by the occupancy model of perceived numerosity (Allik & Tuulmets, 1991a) if it is supposed that the impact that each element has on its neighborhood is spread along both spatial and temporal coordinates. Perceived numerosity decreases with both spatial and temporal proximity between the-visual-items. Space and time have interchangeable effects on perceived numerosity: the amount of numerosity bias caused by the spatial proximity of items can also be produced by the properly chosen temporal proximity of items     

The use of perspective as a depth cue with a 2D display in 4 and 5-month-old infants

Four experiments were conducted to study the use of perspective as a depth cue in infants, using an eye-tracking-system. In the first experiment, no significant difference was observed between the looks for the "normal" and the "strange" events on the complete display and at the target in 4-month-olds. In the second experiment, the results of 5-month-olds were similar to those obtained by 4-month-olds but they looked more at the test events when the "strange" event was presented first. In the third experiment, 5 month-olds were shown a repeated presentation adapted from the "Partial-Lag" design. Infants' exploration of the target indicated that they looked more at the "strange" event than at the "normal" event. In the fourth experiment, the same design was used with 4-month-olds but no difference between conditions was observed. Five-month-olds seem to be able to use the perspective cues alone. These different data are discussed.     

Multisensory numerosity judgments for visual and tactile stimuli

To date, numerosity judgments have been studied only under conditions of unimodal stimulus presentation. It is therefore unclear whether the same limitations on correctly reporting the number of unimodal visual or tactile stimuli presented in a display might be expected under conditions in which participants have to count stimuli presented simultaneously in two or more different sensory modalities. In Experiment 1, we investigated numerosity judgments using both unimodal and bimodal displays consisting of one to six vibrotactile stimuli (presented over the body surface) and one to six visual stimuli (seen on the body via mirror reflection). Participants had to count the number of stimuli regardless of their modality of presentation. Bimodal numerosity judgments were significantly less accurate than predicted on the basis of an independent modality-specific resources account, thus showing that numerosity judgments might rely on a unitary amodal system instead. The results of a second experiment demonstrated that divided attention costs could not account for the poor performance in the bimodal conditions of Experiment 1. We discuss these results in relation to current theories of cross-modal integration and to the cognitive resources and/or common higher order spatial representations possibly accessed by both visual and tactile stimuli.     

共患难,更同盟:共同经历相同负性情绪事件促进合作行为

4项实验探讨了共同经历相同负性情绪事件,相比单独经历负性情绪事件,是否以及如何促进了个体间的合作。实验1~3分别采用抽奖任务和瑞文推理测验任务操纵负性情绪事件,采用公共物品博弈任务测量合作行为,结果表明,共同经历相同负性情绪事件,相比单独经历负性情绪事件,促进了个体间的合作行为。实验2通过测量归属需要、社会联结和内群体认同,实验3通过操纵归属需要,来考察共同经历相同负性情绪事件促进合作行为的潜在机制,结果表明,共同经历者之间的合作行为受归属需要的驱动,而社会联结和内群体认同不足以对该现象进行解释。实验4通过操纵个体共同经历“相同”和“不同”的负性情绪事件,进一步厘清了,促进个体间的合作是由于“共同经历相同的负性情绪事件”而非“共同经历负性情绪”造成的。研究结果有利于解释小群体的形成,对群体和社会管理亦具有借鉴意义。     

Reasoning about conjunctive probabilistic concepts in childhood.

While adults are known to exhibit biases when making conjunctive probability judgments, little is known about childhood competencies in this area. Participants (aged between four and five years, eight and ten years, and a group of young adults) attempted to select the more likely of two events, a single event, and a conjunctive event containing, as one of its components, the single event. The problems were such that the objective probabilities of the component events were potentially available. Children in both age groups were generally successful when the single event was likely. However, when it was unlikely, a majority of children rejected it, choosing the conjunctive event instead, thereby committing the conjunction fallacy. A substantial minority of adults also committed the fallacy under equivalent conditions. It is concluded that under certain conditions children are capable of normative conjunctive judgments but that the mechanisms underpinning this capacity remain to be fully understood.     

Memory of elapsed time and feeling of time discrepancy

In dating past events, one sometimes recalls inaccurate dates and tends to estimate recent events too remotely and remote events too recently (telescoping). On the other hand, even when one knows the exact dates of events, subjective time could be elastic and often different from objective time. This Feeling of Time Discrepancy between objective and subjective elapsed times was examined with two autobiographical events. Results showed that (1) subjects reported a discrepancy even if the exact dates of events were known and (2) the discrepancy for entrance into university was higher than that for graduation from high school, even when they happened at almost same time. The results are discussed in terms of "location" and "distance" theories, Kemp's 1999 associative model of dating, and Conway's 2000 self-memory system. Autobiographical memory may be organized in terms of present self-concept with our past fitted to the present self-concept. However, if autobiographical memory changes greatly, we cannot share autobiographical memory with other people. We may be adapted to the present life by making only a sense of the subjective elapsed time of each event change with the accurate time information of the autobiographical facts held.     

Bidirectional examination of the interaction between time and numerosity corroborates that numerosity influences time estimation but not vice versa

There has been great interest in the idea that time, number, and space share a common magnitude system. However, only a handful of studies examined bidirectional interaction between time and number and the results varied depending on the specifics of the methods and stimulus properties of each study. The present study investigated bidirectional interaction between time and number using estimation tasks. We used duration (Experiment 1) and numerosity (Experiment 2) estimation tasks to investigate the effect of numerosity‐on‐duration and duration‐on‐numerosity estimation. The results from the two experiments demonstrated that numerosity influences duration processing but not vice versa; that is, there was unidirectional interaction between numerosity and time. The duration of stimulus presentation was overestimated for stimuli larger in (task‐irrelevant) numerosity. Possible mechanisms underlying the unidirectional interaction between time and number are discussed.     

Event memory: the effects of processing objectives and time delay on memory for action sequences

The memorial representations of events that result from different types of goal-directed cognition are conceptualized on the basis of the general model of information processing proposed by Wyer and Srull (1980, 1984). In a test of this conceptualization, subjects read a passage describing the events that took place at a cocktail party. They were told either (a) to form an impression of the party and the events that occurred, (b) to empathize with the person from whose perspective the passage was written, or (c) to remember the information presented in a way that would allow them to reproduce it. The stimulus passage contained two target events, each consisting of actions that were either described chronologically or in reverse order, and were either presented together or were separated by other unrelated material. After either a short or a long delay, subjects recalled the information they read in the order it came to mind. Finally, subjects were given the individual event actions and told to place them in the order they were presented. The actions comprising target events were generally more likely to be recalled together and in chronological order when subjects had learned about them with either an impression formation or an empathy objective than when they had read about them with the goal of remembering them. However, orderings of these actions were affected by task objectives only after a long delay. The effect of task objectives on the order of recalling the events themselves showed a quite different pattern; for example, subjects with an empathy objective were most likely to recall the last target event presented before the first one after a long delay, whereas subjects with an impression objective were least likely to do so. The proposed model provided a reasonable account of these and other effects of task objectives on memory for events and the actions comprising them.     

Mediational use of internal representations of food and no-food events by pigeons

Two experiments were conducted with pigeons to determine whether internal representations of food and no-food events can act as mediators in the formation of new associations. Specifically we asked if the representation of an anticipated event can replace the event itself in an established conditional discrimination. In Phase 1 of both experiments pigeons were differentially autoshaped to peck hue stimuli, only one of which was followed by access to food. In Phase 2 they were trained on a symbolic 0-delay matching-to-sample (DMTS) task with food and no-food samples and line-orientation comparisons. In Phase 3 the birds were tested on a symbolic DMTS task in which the hue stimuli from Phase 1 were substituted for the Phase 2 food-event samples. For the Pos group, the hue followed by food in Phase 1 was substituted for the food sample and the hue associated with no-food was substituted for the no-food sample so that the resulting sample/comparison pairings were consistent with the food-event mediator. For the Neg group the pairings were reversed so that the sample/comparison pairings were inconsistent with the food-event mediators. In Experiment 1, when the no-food event was the absence of an event, acquisition of the transfer task was significantly more rapid in the Pos than in the Neg condition. In Experiment 2, when the no-food event was the presentation of an empty food hopper, the Pos group transferred at a significantly higher level than the Neg group. The two experiments provide evidence that in pigeons, representations involving event anticipations can be substituted for, and are thus similar to, the events themselves.     

Effects of signaling on temporal control of behavior in response‐initiated fixed intervals

Behavior and events distributed in time can serve as markers that signal delays to future events. The majority of timing research has focused on how behavior changes as the time to some event, usually food availability, decreases. The primary objective of the two experiments presented here was to assess how behavior changes as time passes between two time markers when the first time marker was manipulated but the second, food delivery, was held constant. Pigeons were exposed to fixed‐interval, response‐initiated fixed‐interval, and signaled response‐initiated fixed‐interval 15‐ and 30‐s schedules of reinforcement. In Experiment 1, first‐response latencies were systematically shorter in the signaled response‐initiated schedules than response‐initiated schedules, suggesting that the first response was a more effective time marker when it was signaled. In Experiment 2, responding in no‐food (i.e. “peak”) trials indicated that timing accuracy was equivalent in the three schedule types. Compared to fixed interval schedules, timing precision was reduced in the signaled response‐initiated schedules and was lowest in response‐initiated schedules. Results from Experiments 1 and 2 coupled with previous research suggest that the overall “informativeness” of a time marker relative to other events and behaviors in the environment may determine its efficacy.     

Auditory-visual intermodal matching of small numerosities in 6-month-old infants

Recent studies have reported that preverbal infants are able to discriminate between numerosities of sets presented within a particular modality. There is still debate, however, over whether they are able to perform intermodal numerosity matching, i.e. to relate numerosities of sets presented with different sensory modalities. The present study investigated auditory-visual intermodal matching of small numerosities in infancy by using a violation-of-expectation paradigm. After being familiarized with events of a few objects impacting a surface successively, 6-month-old infants were alternatively presented with two and three tones while the movement of each object remained hidden behind an opaque screen. The screen was then removed to reveal either two or three objects. Results showed that the infants looked significantly longer at the numerically nonequivalent events (the three-tone/two-object and the two-tone/three-object events) than at the numerically equivalent events (the two-tone/two-object and the three-tone/three-object events) irrespective of the rate or duration of auditory tones presented. These findings suggest that infants are capable of performing intermodal matching of small numerosities and that they might possess abstract representations of numerosity beyond sensory modalities.     

基于数量感知的数量适应

数量适应是指观察者在知觉上适应刺激数量的过程, 这一过程可以通过考察适应后其数量感知的变化加以揭示。目前对这一现象的争论焦点在于它是对数量的单独适应还是对非数量表面信息的适应。本研究通过改变刺激点大小和刺激组块两种方式, 探讨非数量表面信息对数量感知和数量适应的影响。实验一证明刺激点大小不会对数量感知产生显著影响。实验二发现刺激组块会对数量感知产生显著影响。实验三在前两个实验基础上发现：刺激大小不对数量感知产生显著影响, 也不影响数量适应, 而刺激组块能显著改变数量感知, 并按照改变后的数量感进行适应。三个实验的结果说明：表面信息只有在影响到数量感知时才会影响适应, 数量适应是基于数量感知的加工而产生的适应现象。     

Client and counsellor narrative accounts of congruence during the most helpful and hindering events of an initial counselling session

The role of congruence in establishing and maintaining a therapeutic alliance has been emphasized by theorists within the humanistic/person‐centred tradition. However, there appears to be a lack of research that explores the processes occurring during moments of congruence or incongruence. The main objective of the present study was to gather qualitative data about congruence based on both participants’ narrative accounts of their subjective reactions during the most helpful and the most hindering event of an initial counselling session. Client and counsellor recollections of their experiences during these two events were stimulated through the replay of a video‐tape after the session. The event identification came from the client through a Brief Structured Recall interview. During the hindering event, both participants were incongruent. There was a mismatch between what they were feeling and what they were expressing verbally and/or non‐verbally. At the same time the client was feeling criticised and offended by counsellor's confrontation. By contrast, during the helpful event both participants were congruent. The counsellor was experiencing empathic understanding toward his client and the client was feeling accepted and understood. The implication of these findings are discussed in terms of how congruence might affect the construction of significant events during the therapeutic hour.     

Behavioral evidence for format-dependent processes in approximate numerosity representation

A genuinely abstract number representation is thought to be capable of representing the numerosity of any set of discrete elements, whether they are sequentially or simultaneously presented. Recent neuroimaging studies, however, have demonstrated that different areas of intraparietal sulcus play a role in extracting numerosity across simultaneous or sequential presentation during a quantification process, suggesting the existence of a format-dependent numerical system. To test whether behavioral evidence exists for format-dependent numerical processing in adult humans, we measured the Weber fractions of numerosity discrimination for sequential stimuli, simultaneous stimuli, and cross-format stimuli with a carefully controlled experimental procedure. The results showed distinct differences between the performance in the simultaneous and sequential conditions, supporting the existence of format-dependent processes for numerosity representation. Moreover, the performance on cross-format trials differed among participants, with the exception that performance was always worse than in the simultaneous condition. Taken together, our findings suggest that numerical representation may involve a complex set of multiple stages.     

Object individuation in 3-day-old chicks: use of property and spatiotemporal information

Object individuation was investigated in newborn domestic chicks. Chicks' spontaneous tendency to approach the larger group of familiar objects was exploited in a series of five experiments. In the first experiment newborn chicks were reared for 3 days with objects differing in either colour, shape or size. At test, each chick was presented with two groups of events: two objects differing in one property vs. two presentations of the same object. In both cases, all objects involved in the same group of events were sequentially presented and eventually concealed in a different spatial location, and the number of events taking place at each location was equalized. Chicks spontaneously approached the two different objects rather than the single object seen twice. Chicks did not just prefer the more varied set as they did not choose it when the two elements of each group of events were simultaneously presented (Experiment 2). Chicks succeeded when two different objects simultaneously presented were confronted with three identical ones simultaneously presented (Experiment 3), though they failed with sequential presentation of two different objects vs. one object presented three times if they had been familiarized with up to three identical objects (Experiment 4). Chicks instead succeeded if they had been familiarized with objects that were all different from one another (Experiment 5). These young birds thus proved able to use property and spatiotemporal information for object individuation.     

Behavior simultaneously maintained by both presentation and termination of noxious stimuli

Lever pressing by two squirrel monkeys was maintained under a 3-minute variable-interval schedule of response-produced electric-shock presentation. At the same time, responding on a second lever was maintained under a 3-minute fixed-interval schedule of termination of the shock-presentation schedule and shock-correlated stimuli. Under the termination schedule, the first response after a 3-minute period produced a 1-minute timeout, during which no events occurred and responding had no scheduled consequence. Relatively high and constant rates of responding were maintained on the lever where responding produced shock. Lower rates and positively accelerated patterns of responding occurred on the lever where responding terminated the shock schedule. Thus, responding was simultaneously maintained by presentation of an event and by termination of a stimulus associated with that event. Rates and patterns of responding on each lever were reversed when the schedules arranged on each lever were reversed on two occasions. When shock intensity was increased from 0 to 10 mA, responding maintained both by presentation of shock and by termination of the shock schedule increased, but responding maintained by shock presentation increased to a greater extent. Positive and negative reinforcement, usually regarded as separate behavioral processes involving different events, can coexist when behavior is controlled by different contingencies involving the same event.     

Relational and Representational Aspects of Early Number Development

Two experiments examined the role of representations of numerosity in children's reasoning about relations between two quantities. In the first experiment, 3- and 4-year-old children were able to solve matching-to-sample problems on the basis of both the numerosity of a focal set (number matches) and the correspondence relation between two sets (relational matches); but in a conflict condition, the younger children used only the relational information. In the second experiment, both the 3- and the 4-year-olds showed very high levels of success in inferring numerical equivalence from commutativity relations between two pairs of sets. Children were successful even when one of the sets in each pair was covered, so that children could not directly enumerate the quantities to be compared. Both findings support the notion that relational reasoning originates independently of processes for representing numerosity.