Abstract
Our study explores various aspects of enumerating small quantities in the tactile modality. Fingertips of one hand were stimulated by a vibro-tactile apparatus (for 100/800. ms). Between 1 and 5 stimuli were presented to the right or the left hand and applied to neighboring (e.g., thumb-index-middle) or non-neighboring (e.g., thumb-middle-pinkie) fingers. The results showed a moderate increase in RT up to 4 stimuli and then a decrease for 5 stimuli. Right hand stimulation evoked more accurate performance than left hand stimulation only under short exposures (100. ms). Importantly, when the stimuli were presented to neighboring fingers, the accuracy rate was higher and the RT was faster than when presented to non-neighboring fingers. We discuss the results and suggest that when the stimuli are presented to one hand the subitizing range is 4 rather than 3. Furthermore, the right hand advantage and the efficiency for neighboring fingers are further support for the association between number and spatial arrangement of the fingers.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 26-34 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Acta Psychologica |
| Volume | 150 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 2014 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was conducted as part of the research in the Center for the Study of the Neurocognitive Basis of Numerical Cognition, supported by the Israel Science Foundation (Grant 1799/12 ) in the framework of their Centers of Excellence. Special thanks to Yael Salzer and Daniela Aisenberg for their tremendous help in the project.
Keywords
- Embodied numerosity
- Finger counting
- Tactile stimuli
- Tactile subitizing