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Haseltine EL, Beran MJ. Maze runners: monkeys show restricted Arabic numeral summation during computerized two-arm maze performance. Anim Cogn 2024; 27:23. [PMID: 38443540 PMCID: PMC10914902 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-024-01853-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2023] [Revised: 10/09/2023] [Accepted: 10/20/2023] [Indexed: 03/07/2024]
Abstract
Mazes have been used in many forms to provide compelling results showcasing nonhuman animals' capacities for spatial navigation, planning, and numerical competence. The current study presented computerized two-arm mazes to four rhesus macaques. Using these mazes, we assessed whether the monkeys could maximize rewards by overcoming mild delays in gratification and sum the values of Arabic numerals. Across four test phases, monkeys used a joystick controller to choose one of two maze arms on the screen. Each maze arm contained zero, one or two Arabic numerals, and any numerals in the chosen maze arm provided the monkeys with rewards equivalent to the value of those numerals. When deciding which arm to enter, monkeys had to consider distance to numerals and numeral value. In some tests, gaining the maximum reward required summing the value of two numerals within a given arm. All four monkeys successfully maximized reward when comparing single numerals and when comparing arms that each contained two numerals. However, some biases occurred that were suboptimal: the largest single numeral and the delay of reward (by placing numerals farther into an arm from the start location) sometimes interfered with the monkeys' abilities to optimize. These results indicate that monkeys experience difficulties with inhibition toward single, high valence stimuli in tasks where those stimuli must be considered in relation to overall value when represented by symbolic stimuli such as numerals.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Michael J Beran
- Psychology Department, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
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Denić M, Szymanik J. Recursive Numeral Systems Optimize the Trade-off Between Lexicon Size and Average Morphosyntactic Complexity. Cogn Sci 2024; 48:e13424. [PMID: 38497509 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13424] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2023] [Revised: 02/12/2024] [Accepted: 02/21/2024] [Indexed: 03/19/2024]
Abstract
Human languages vary in terms of which meanings they lexicalize, but this variation is constrained. It has been argued that languages are under two competing pressures: the pressure to be simple (e.g., to have a small lexicon) and to allow for informative (i.e., precise) communication, and that which meanings get lexicalized may be explained by languages finding a good way to trade off between these two pressures. However, in certain semantic domains, languages can reach very high levels of informativeness even if they lexicalize very few meanings in that domain. This is due to productive morphosyntax and compositional semantics, which may allow for construction of meanings which are not lexicalized. Consider the semantic domain of natural numbers: many languages lexicalize few natural number meanings as monomorphemic expressions, but can precisely convey very many natural number meanings using morphosyntactically complex numerals. In such semantic domains, lexicon size is not in direct competition with informativeness. What explains which meanings are lexicalized in such semantic domains? We will propose that in such cases, languages need to solve a different kind of trade-off problem: the trade-off between the pressure to lexicalize as few meanings as possible (i.e, to minimize lexicon size) and the pressure to produce as morphosyntactically simple utterances as possible (i.e, to minimize average morphosyntactic complexity of utterances). To support this claim, we will present a case study of 128 natural languages' numeral systems, and show computationally that they achieve a near-optimal trade-off between lexicon size and average morphosyntactic complexity of numerals. This study in conjunction with previous work on communicative efficiency suggests that languages' lexicons are shaped by a trade-off between not two but three pressures: be simple, be informative, and minimize average morphosyntactic complexity of utterances.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Jakub Szymanik
- Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science, University of Trento
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Holt S, Fan JE, Barner D. Creating ad hoc graphical representations of number. Cognition 2024; 242:105665. [PMID: 37992512 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105665] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2023] [Revised: 11/09/2023] [Accepted: 11/11/2023] [Indexed: 11/24/2023]
Abstract
The ability to communicate about exact number is critical to many modern human practices spanning science, industry, and politics. Although some early numeral systems used 1-to-1 correspondence (e.g., 'IIII' to represent 4), most systems provide compact representations via more arbitrary conventions (e.g., '7' and 'VII'). When people are unable to rely on conventional numerals, however, what strategies do they initially use to communicate number? Across three experiments, participants used pictures to communicate about visual arrays of objects containing 1-16 items, either by producing freehand drawings or combining sets of visual tokens. We analyzed how the pictures they produced varied as a function of communicative need (Experiment 1), spatial regularities in the arrays (Experiment 2), and visual properties of tokens (Experiment 3). In Experiment 1, we found that participants often expressed number in the form of 1-to-1 representations, but sometimes also exploited the configuration of sets. In Experiment 2, this strategy of using configural cues was exaggerated when sets were especially large, and when the cues were predictably correlated with number. Finally, in Experiment 3, participants readily adopted salient numerical features of objects (e.g., four-leaf clover) and generally combined them in a cumulative-additive manner. Taken together, these findings corroborate historical evidence that humans exploit correlates of number in the external environment - such as shape, configural cues, or 1-to-1 correspondence - as the basis for innovating more abstract number representations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian Holt
- Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
| | - Judith E Fan
- Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA; Department of Psychology, Stanford University, 450 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - David Barner
- Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA; Department of Linguistics, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
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Pedrotti M, de Chambrier AF, Ruggeri P, Dewi J, Atzemian M, Thevenot C, Martinet C, Terrier P. Raw eye tracking data of healthy adults reading aloud words, pseudowords and numerals. Data Brief 2023; 49:109360. [PMID: 37456113 PMCID: PMC10344652 DOI: 10.1016/j.dib.2023.109360] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2023] [Revised: 06/23/2023] [Accepted: 06/26/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023] Open
Abstract
This paper describes data from de Chambrier et al. (2023). The dataset [2] contains raw eye tracking data of 36 healthy adults, collected using an EyeLink 1000 (SR Research Ltd., ON, Canada) during an on-screen reading task. Participants read 96 items including words, pseudowords and numerals. Each item was presented at the center of the screen until the participant produced an oral response and pressed the keyboard's space bar. Part of the data were analyzed to extract key metrics such as fixation number, fixation duration, saccade number, and saccade amplitude identified by the EyeLink 1000 [1]. Reuse potential includes (but is not limited to) pupil diameter data analysis, identification of fixations and saccades using custom algorithms, and secondary analyses using participant demographics (age, gender) as independent variables.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Pedrotti
- Haute Ecole Arc Santé, HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Espace de l'Europe 11, Neuchâtel 2000, Switzerland
| | | | - Paolo Ruggeri
- Brain Electrophysiology Attention Movement Laboratory, Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Jasinta Dewi
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Development, Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | - Catherine Thevenot
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Development, Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | - Philippe Terrier
- Haute Ecole Arc Santé, HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Espace de l'Europe 11, Neuchâtel 2000, Switzerland
- Department of Thoracic and Endocrine Surgery, University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland
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de Chambrier AF, Pedrotti M, Ruggeri P, Dewi J, Atzemian M, Thevenot C, Martinet C, Terrier P. Reading numbers is harder than reading words: An eye-tracking study. Acta Psychol (Amst) 2023; 237:103942. [PMID: 37210866 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.103942] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2022] [Revised: 05/09/2023] [Accepted: 05/15/2023] [Indexed: 05/23/2023] Open
Abstract
We recorded the eye movements of adults reading aloud short (four digit) and long (eight to 11 digit) Arabic numerals compared to matched-in-length words and pseudowords. We presented each item in isolation, at the center of the screen. Participants read each item aloud at their pace, and then pressed the spacebar to display the next item. Reading accuracy was 99 %. Results showed that adults make 2.5 times more fixations when reading short numerals compared to short words, and up to 7 times more fixations when reading long numerals with respect to long words. Similarly, adults make 3 times more saccades when reading short numerals compared to short words, and up to 9 times more saccades when reading long numerals with respect to long words. Fixation duration and saccade amplitude stay almost the same when reading short numerals with respect to short words. However, fixation duration increases by ∼50 ms when reading long numerals (∼300 ms) with respect to long words (∼250 ms), and saccade amplitude decreases up to 0.83 characters when reading long numerals with respect to long words. The pattern of findings for long numerals-more and shorter saccades as well as more and longer fixations-shows the extent to which reading long Arabic numerals is a cognitively costly task. Within the phonographic writing system, this pattern of eye movements stands for the use of the sublexical print-to-sound correspondence rules. The data highlight that reading large numerals is an unautomatized activity and that Arabic numerals must be converted into their oral form by a step-by-step process even by expert readers.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Marco Pedrotti
- Haute Ecole Arc Santé, HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
| | - Paolo Ruggeri
- Brain Electrophysiology Attention Movement Laboratory, Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Jasinta Dewi
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Development, Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | - Catherine Thevenot
- Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Development, Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | - Philippe Terrier
- Haute Ecole Arc Santé, HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Neuchâtel, Switzerland; Department of Thoracic and Endocrine Surgery, University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland
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Khan A, Loberg O, Hautala J. On the Eye Movement Control of Changing Reading Direction for a Single Word: The Case of Reading Numerals in Urdu. J Psycholinguist Res 2017; 46:1273-1283. [PMID: 28478570 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-017-9491-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Typically orthographies are consistent in terms of reading direction, i.e. from left-to-right or right-to-left. However, some are bidirectional, i.e., certain parts of the text, (such as numerals in Urdu), are read against the default reading direction. Such sudden changes in reading direction may challenge the reader in many ways, at the level of planning of saccadic eye movements, changing the direction of attention, word recognition processes and cognitive reading strategies. The present study attempts to understand how readers achieve such sudden changes in reading direction at the level of eye movements and conscious cognitive reading strategies. Urdu readers reported employing a two-stage strategy for reading numerals by first counting the number of digits during right-to-left fixations, and only then forming numeric representation during left-to-right fixations. Eye movement findings were aligned with this strategy usage, as long numerals were often read with deliberate forward-and-backward fixation sequences. In these sequences fixations preceding saccades to default reading direction were shorter than against it, suggesting that different cognitive processes such as counting and formation of numeric representation were involved in fixations preceding left- and right-directed saccades. Finally, the change against the default reading direction was preceded by highly inflated fixation duration, pinpointing the oculomotor, attentional and cognitive demands in executing sudden changes in reading direction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Azizuddin Khan
- Psychophysiology Laboratory, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, 400 076, India.
| | - Otto Loberg
- Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Jarkko Hautala
- Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
- Agora Center, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
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Abstract
The Freiburg speech intelligibility test according to DIN 45621 was introduced around 60 years ago. For decades, and still today, the Freiburg test has been a standard whose relevance extends far beyond pure audiometry. It is used primarily to determine the speech perception threshold (based on two-digit numbers) and the ability to discriminate speech at suprathreshold presentation levels (based on monosyllabic nouns). Moreover, it is a measure of the degree of disability, the requirement for and success of technical hearing aids (auxiliaries directives), and the compensation for disability and handicap (Königstein recommendation). In differential audiological diagnostics, the Freiburg test contributes to the distinction between low- and high-frequency hearing loss, as well as to identification of conductive, sensory, neural, and central disorders. Currently, the phonemic and perceptual balance of the monosyllabic test lists is subject to critical discussions. Obvious deficiencies exist for testing speech recognition in noise. In this respect, alternatives such as sentence or rhyme tests in closed-answer inventories are discussed.
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