Number bias for the discrimination of large visual sets in infancy.
This brief report attempts to resolve the claim that infants preferentially attend to continuous variables over number [e.g. Psychol. Sci. 10 (1999) 408; Cognit. Psychol.44 (2002) 33] with the finding that when continuous variables are controlled, infants as young as 6-months of age discriminate large numerical values [e.g. Psychol. Sci. 14 (2003) 396; Cognition 89 (2003) B15; Cognition 74 (2000) B1]. In two parallel experiments, we compare 6-month-old infants' ability to discriminate number and ignore continuous variables with their ability to form a representation of a cumulative surface area and ignore number. We find that infants discriminate a 2-fold change in number but fail to discriminate a 2-fold change in cumulative surface area. The results point to a more complicated relationship between discrete and continuous dimensions than implied by previous literature.
Brannon
Elizabeth M
EM
Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Box 90999, Durham, NC 27708-0999, USA. brannon@duke.edu
Abbott
Sara
S
Lutz
Donna J
DJ
D001288:Attention; D015982:Bias; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D014796:Visual Perception