• Part-whole effects in visual n...

Treffer: Part-whole effects in visual number estimation.

Title:
Part-whole effects in visual number estimation.
Authors:
Guan C; Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China. chenxiaoguan@zju.edu.cn.; Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA. chenxiaoguan@zju.edu.cn., Schwitzgebel D; Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA.; Institut Jean Nicod/Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique, École Normale Supérieure-⁠Paris Sciences et Lettres, 75005, Paris, France., Firestone C; Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA., Hafri A; Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA. alon@udel.edu.; Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science, University of Delaware, 15 Orchard Road, Ewing Hall, Room 417, Newark, DE, 19716, USA. alon@udel.edu.
Source:
Attention, perception & psychophysics [Atten Percept Psychophys] 2026 Jan 08; Vol. 88 (2), pp. 45. Date of Electronic Publication: 2026 Jan 08.
Publication Type:
Journal Article
Language:
English
Journal Info:
Publisher: Springer Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 101495384 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1943-393X (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 19433921 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Atten Percept Psychophys Subsets: MEDLINE
Imprint Name(s):
Publication: 2011- : New York : Springer
Original Publication: Austin, Tex. : Psychonomic Society
MeSH Terms:
Pattern Recognition, Visual* , Judgment* , Attention* , Mathematical Concepts* , Problem Solving* , Mathematics*, Humans ; Male ; Female ; Young Adult ; Adult ; Orientation ; Discrimination, Psychological
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Grant Information:
BCS-2021053 Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences; SMA-2105228 SBE Office of Multidisciplinary Activities; 32400854 National Natural Science Foundation of China
Contributed Indexing:
Keywords: ANS; Approximate number system; Perception; Possibility; Shape; Visual relations
Entry Date(s):
Date Created: 20260108 Date Completed: 20260108 Latest Revision: 20260111
Update Code:
20260111
PubMed Central ID:
PMC12783196
DOI:
10.3758/s13414-025-03158-8
PMID:
41507558
Database:
MEDLINE

Weitere Informationen

In a single glance at a collection of objects, we can appreciate their numerosity. But what are the "objects" over which this number sense operates? Most work in this domain has implicitly assumed that we estimate the number of discrete, bounded individuals actually present in the visual field. However, in many instances we can construe such individuals as potential parts of composite objects that they can create-as when we assemble furniture or complete a jigsaw puzzle. Here, we demonstrate that visual numerosity estimation is sensitive to such part-whole relations, such that the number of items in a display is underestimated when it contains spatially separated but easily combinable objects. Participants saw brief displays containing noncontiguous "puzzle-piece" stimuli, and reported which display had more pieces. Crucially, most of the pieces appeared in pairs that either could or could not efficiently combine into new objects. In four experiments, displays with combinable pieces were judged as less numerous than displays with noncombinable pieces-as if the mind treated two geometrically compatible pieces as being the single whole object they could create. These effects went beyond various low-level factors, and they persisted even when participants were explicitly trained to treat individual pieces as the units that should be counted. Thus, despite the many ways that sets of objects may be construed for the purposes of counting, visual perception automatically takes into account the ways that object parts may combine into wholes when extracting numerosity from visual displays.
(© 2026. The Author(s).)

Declarations. Ethics approval: These experiments were approved by the IRB of JHU. Consent to participate: All participants included in the present analyses provided their full, informed consent to participate in the study. Consent for publication: Participant data was anonymized for publication, with no identifying information linked to any individual participant. Conflicts of interest/Competing interests: NA