Olivers, Christian N. L. and Watson, Derrick G. . (2008) Subitizing requires attention. Visual Cognition, Vol.16 (No.4). pp. 439-462. ISSN 1350-6285

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Abstract

While counting objects is typically a slow, serial process, enumerating about four or fewer objects has been considered to be a relatively effortless, parallel, and even preattentive process often referred to as subitizing. However, by combining a subitizing task with an attentional blink task, we show that subitizing is systematically affected by a closely preceding letter identification task. Vice versa, letter identification is also affected by a closely preceding subitizing task. Importantly, performance not only depended on the time between the two tasks, but also on the number of to-be-enumerated dots, even though this number fell within the subitizing range. The results imply that the processes underlying subitizing require attentional resources, suggesting that they are either serial in nature, or parallel, with capacity limited by the overall resources available.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Divisions:	Faculty of Science > Psychology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Visual perception, Attention (Psychology), Number concept, Cognition, Cognitive science, Apperception, Short-term memory
Journal or Publication Title:	Visual Cognition
Publisher:	Psychology Press
ISSN:	1350-6285
Date:	2008
Volume:	Vol.16
Number:	No.4
Number of Pages:	24
Page Range:	pp. 439-462
Identification Number:	10.1080/13506280701825861
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Funder:	Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC), Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek [Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research] (NWO)
Grant number:	R000239180 (ESRC)
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/30169

Data sourced from Thomson Reuters' Web of Knowledge

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