A study involving 27 people, ages 18-29 years, suggests that when estimating the number of objects in a set, people accumulate quantities across a series of visual fixations without accounting for peripheral objects, suggesting that approximate numerical estimation in humans is not a rapid, parallel process as is commonly thought.
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Article #18-19956: "A primarily serial, foveal accumulator underlies approximate numerical estimation," by Samuel J. Cheyette and Steven P. Piantadosi.
MEDIA CONTACT: Samuel J. Cheyette, University of California, Berkeley, CA; tel: 510-847-1684; e-mail: sjcheyette@gmail.com
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences