| 研究実績の概要 |
Previous research has shown that when several dots in collection are connected with a thin line, people tend to underestimate the numerosity of the total collection. In other words, with the increasing connectedness, displays tend to be perceived as less numerous. However, connecting dots with lines that are actually irrelevant to the task may be a nuisance variable because lines could act as distractors in the set and therefore, bias the numerical estimations. Current research tested whether Kanitsza-type illusory contours that posses powerful connecting properties in absence of actual luminance changes (apparent lines), affect the perception of numerosity. In three experiments, participants were asked to choose the larger collection out of two displays made of inducers. It was found that when some of the inducers in one of the collections formed illusory contours, the total numerosity of that collection was underestimated. These findings are important and contribute to the understanding of how our visual systems estimate the numerously of collections, which most likely are based on discrete visual inputs, rather than properties like total area of the collection. In other words, scene segmentation is important for recognizing objects and spatial positions, but most of all, segmentation seems to be a fundamental principle behind the extraction of visual non-symbolic numerosities.
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