scholarly journals Unconfounding time and number discrimination in a Mechner counting schedule

1979 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 390-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald M. Wilkie ◽  
Janet B. Webster ◽  
Leslie G. Leader
1991 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 290-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
J�ri Allik ◽  
Tiia Tuulmets ◽  
Piet G. Vos

2007 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei Xu ◽  
Rosa I. Arriaga

eLife ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Potrich ◽  
Mirko Zanon ◽  
Giorgio Vallortigara

Debates have arisen as to whether non-human animals actually can learn abstract non-symbolic numerousness or whether they always rely on some continuous physical aspect of the stimuli, covarying with number. Here we investigated archerfish (Toxotes jaculatrix) non-symbolic numerical discrimination with accurate control for co-varying continuous physical stimulus attributes. Archerfish were trained to select one of two groups of black dots (Exp. 1: 3 vs. 6 elements; Exp. 2: 2 vs. 3 elements); these were controlled for several combinations of physical variables (elements’ size, overall area, overall perimeter, density and sparsity), ensuring that only numerical information was available. Generalization tests with novel numerical comparisons (2 vs. 3, 5 vs. 8 and 6 vs. 9 in Exp. 1; 3 vs. 4, 3 vs. 6 in Exp. 2) revealed choice for the largest or smallest numerical group according to the relative number that was rewarded at training. None of the continuous physical variables, including spatial frequency, were affecting archerfish performance. Results provide evidence that archerfish spontaneously use abstract relative numerical information for both small and large numbers when only numerical cues are available.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 20190138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Bortot ◽  
Christian Agrillo ◽  
Aurore Avarguès-Weber ◽  
Angelo Bisazza ◽  
Maria Elena Miletto Petrazzini ◽  
...  

Various vertebrate species use relative numerosity judgements in comparative assessments of quantities for which they use larger/smaller relationships rather than absolute number. The numerical ability of honeybees shares basic properties with that of vertebrates but their use of absolute or relative numerosity has not been explored. We trained free-flying bees to choose variable images containing three dots; one group (‘larger’) was trained to discriminate 3 from 2, while another group (‘smaller’) was trained to discriminate 3 from 4. In both cases, numbers were kept constant but stimulus characteristics and position were varied from trial to trial. Bees were then tested with novel stimuli displaying the previously trained numerosity (3) versus a novel numerosity (4 for ‘larger’ and 2 for ‘smaller’). Both groups preferred the three-item stimulus, consistent with absolute numerosity. They also exhibited ratio-dependent discrimination of numbers, a property shared by vertebrates, as performance after 2 versus 3 was better than after 3 versus 4 training. Thus, bees differ from vertebrates in their use of absolute rather than of relative numerosity but they also have some numeric properties in common.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. eaav7903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khaled Nasr ◽  
Pooja Viswanathan ◽  
Andreas Nieder

Humans and animals have a “number sense,” an innate capability to intuitively assess the number of visual items in a set, its numerosity. This capability implies that mechanisms to extract numerosity indwell the brain’s visual system, which is primarily concerned with visual object recognition. Here, we show that network units tuned to abstract numerosity, and therefore reminiscent of real number neurons, spontaneously emerge in a biologically inspired deep neural network that was merely trained on visual object recognition. These numerosity-tuned units underlay the network’s number discrimination performance that showed all the characteristics of human and animal number discriminations as predicted by the Weber-Fechner law. These findings explain the spontaneous emergence of the number sense based on mechanisms inherent to the visual system.


2019 ◽  
Vol 184 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 174-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan M Linder ◽  
Mandy Miller Koop ◽  
Sarah Ozinga ◽  
Zachary Goldfarb ◽  
Jay L Alberts

Abstract Research Objective Dual-task performance, in which individuals complete two or more activities simultaneously, is impaired following mild traumatic brain injury. The aim of this project was to develop a dual-task paradigm that may be conducive to military utilization in evaluating cognitive-motor function in a standardized and scalable manner by leveraging mobile device technology. Methods Fifty healthy young adult civilians (18–24 years) completed four balance stances and a number discrimination task under single- and dual-task conditions. Postural stability was quantified using data gathered from iPad’s native accelerometer and gyroscope. Cognitive task difficulty was manipulated by presenting stimuli at 30, 60, or 90 per minute. Performance of cognitive and balance tasks was compared between single- and dual-task trials. Results Cognitive performance from single- to dual-task paradigms showed no significant main effect of balance condition or the interaction of condition by frequency. From single- to dual-task conditions, a significant difference in postural control was revealed in only one stance: tandem with eyes closed, in which a slight improvement in postural stability was observed under dual-task conditions. Conclusion The optimal dual-task paradigm to evaluate cognitive-motor performance with minimal floor and ceiling effects consists of tandem stance with eyes closed while stimuli are presented at a rate of one per second.


2015 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Agrillo ◽  
Laura Piffer ◽  
Angelo Bisazza ◽  
Brian Butterworth

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