Adaptation biases the parallel perception of subitized numerosities

Abstract

Numerosity adaptation is a phenomenon in which prolonged exposure to a stimulus of greater numerosity makes subsequent stimuli appear less numerous, and vice versa. It has been confined to moderated numerosities outside the subitizing range (> 4). This study investigated whether the estimation of small numerosities (1–4), which is performed rapidly and accurately due to the mechanism of subitizing, is susceptible to adaptation. After adapting to a 50-dot stimulus, participants were presented with stimuli consisting of 1–5 color sets. In some trials, participants were informed of the target color-set before the presentation of stimuli, while in others, they were instructed afterwards. When estimating 1–4 dots in the single-color set or superset (the total dots), no adaptation effect was observed. The coefficient of variation (CV) was below 0.05, indicating the effective function of subitizing. However, when enumerating subsets in parallel, adaptation biased the estimation. The CV in estimating subitized numerosities was comparable to and correlated with that of estimating moderate numerosities (5–12), suggesting that subitizing was superseded by numerosity estimation. Greater effects arise when the targets were probed afterwards, with elevated CV. The prior adaptor may be more weighted to optimize detection of number deviations, especially under higher perceptual uncertainty.