Previous studies have reported that larger visual stimuli are perceived as lasting longer than smaller ones. However, this effect disappears when participants provide a qualitative judgment, by stating whether two stimuli have the "same or different" duration, instead of providing an explicit quantitative judgment (which stimulus lasts longer). Here, we extended these observations to the interaction between the numerosity of visual stimuli, i.e. clouds of dots, and their duration. With "longer vs shorter" responses, participants judged larger numerosities as lasting longer than smaller ones, both when the responses were related to the order (Experiment 1) or color (Experiment 4) of stimuli. In contrast, no similar effect was found with "same vs different" responses (Experiment 2) and in a time motor reproduction task (Experiment 3). The numerosity-time interference in Experiment 1 and Experiment 4 was not due to task difficulty, as sensory precision was equivalent to that of Experiment 2. We conclude that in humans the functional interaction between numerosity and time is not guided, in the main, by a shared bottom-up mechanism of magnitude coding. Rather, high-level and top-down processes involved in decision-making and guided by the use of "magnitude-related" response codes play a crucial role in triggering interference among different magnitude domains.

Top-down determinants of the numerosity–time interaction / Petrizzo, Irene; Pellegrino, Michele; Anobile, Giovanni; Doricchi, Fabrizio; Arrighi, Roberto. - In: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS. - ISSN 2045-2322. - 13:1(2023). [10.1038/s41598-023-47507-9]

Top-down determinants of the numerosity–time interaction

Pellegrino, Michele
Secondo
Investigation
;
Doricchi, Fabrizio
Penultimo
Conceptualization
;
Arrighi, Roberto
Ultimo
Methodology
2023

Abstract

Previous studies have reported that larger visual stimuli are perceived as lasting longer than smaller ones. However, this effect disappears when participants provide a qualitative judgment, by stating whether two stimuli have the "same or different" duration, instead of providing an explicit quantitative judgment (which stimulus lasts longer). Here, we extended these observations to the interaction between the numerosity of visual stimuli, i.e. clouds of dots, and their duration. With "longer vs shorter" responses, participants judged larger numerosities as lasting longer than smaller ones, both when the responses were related to the order (Experiment 1) or color (Experiment 4) of stimuli. In contrast, no similar effect was found with "same vs different" responses (Experiment 2) and in a time motor reproduction task (Experiment 3). The numerosity-time interference in Experiment 1 and Experiment 4 was not due to task difficulty, as sensory precision was equivalent to that of Experiment 2. We conclude that in humans the functional interaction between numerosity and time is not guided, in the main, by a shared bottom-up mechanism of magnitude coding. Rather, high-level and top-down processes involved in decision-making and guided by the use of "magnitude-related" response codes play a crucial role in triggering interference among different magnitude domains.
2023
time; numerosity; space; ATOM theory; magnitude
01 Pubblicazione su rivista::01a Articolo in rivista
Top-down determinants of the numerosity–time interaction / Petrizzo, Irene; Pellegrino, Michele; Anobile, Giovanni; Doricchi, Fabrizio; Arrighi, Roberto. - In: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS. - ISSN 2045-2322. - 13:1(2023). [10.1038/s41598-023-47507-9]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/1713483
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