A Model for Numerosity Adaptation

Abstract

Research into numerosity perception has shown that the set size of a group of items can be perceived by human species as well as non-human species through a similar numerosity system. Further and more recent research has shown that this numerosity system is susceptible to adaptation. However, the question which remains unanswered is “how does numerosity adaptation occur”.

This paper specifically investigates numerosity adaptation on a neural level. It proposes a model for numerosity adaptation similar to adaptation in the primary visual cortex (V1), but modified to the neural characteristics of numerosity neurons. Using a MATLAB implementation of the model, results for the numerosity adaptation model are computed through simulations of the implemented model. These results are then compared to earlier found psychophysical results of numerosity adaptation. Especially the results of two earlier studies (Aagten-Murphy & Burr, 2016; Tsouli et al., 2018) are compared to the model’s results.

This paper found that earlier results could be explained fully by the modified V1 adaptation model, providing a working model for numerosity adaptation. Even so, more research should be done to ascertain if the model provided fully explains numerosity adaptation or only the part of it examined in this paper.