The Dependence of the Visual Numerosity Limit on Orientation,Colour,and Grouping in the Stimulus

Abstract

Visual numerosity judgements were made for tachistoscopically presented arrays of dots. The arrangement within the arrays was either linear or such that dots could be easily perceptually subdivided into two groups. Subdivision was either in terms of an orientation difference, a colour difference, or a spacing difference in the centre of the array. For a large difference in orientation between the two ‘arms’ of the array (90°), or a large central space (three times the interdot interval) up to 8 dots were accurately perceived. This numerosity limit was twice that found for equivalent linear arrays, with no grouping. Although in terms of accuracy it seems that in these conditions the two groups within each array can be counted independently, there is no evidence for independent processing in terms of response times. From the results of a subsidiary experiment it seems likely that the slow response times in the subgrouping conditions are due to the necessity of processes other than counting (such as judgements of symmetry). For arrays where subgrouping was in terms of a colour difference, or an orientation difference of between approximately 45° and 90°, or a small central space of twice the interdot interval, there was an improvement in accuracy compared to equivalent linear arrays, but no evidence of independent processing, up to a limit of 4, in each of the subgroups. From these preliminary results, tentative proposals concerning ‘numerosity’ units and their properties are made.