In this paper we examine how vague quantifiers, such as few, several, lots of, map onto non-linguistic number systems. In particular our focus is to examine how judgements about vague quantifiers are affected by the presence of objects in visual scenes other than those being referred to. An experiment is presented that manipulated the number of objects in a visual scene (men playing golf; the ‘focus’ objects) together with the number of other objects in those scenes and their similarity — in terms of form (women or crocodiles) and function (playing golf, not playing golf) — to the focus objects. We show that the number of other objects in a scene impacts upon quantifiers judgements even when those objects are in a different category to the focus objects. We discuss the results in terms of the mapping between the large approximate number (estimation) system and language

In order to get around the environment and communicate about it, humans need to build spatial mental representations or cognitive maps of the world (see, e.g., Downs & Stea, 1977;Tolman, 1948). Cognitive maps contain three kinds of spatial information: the existence of elements (objects and places), the directional relationships among the elements, and the distance separating the elements. There is much evidence that the construction of such representations is affected both by the nature of the environment being learned and by how and why such information is acquired. However, despite much interest in effects of encoding on the spatial representations humans form about the environment, less attention had been given to the issue of whether or not context at retrieval affects how one recalls information about the spatial world. In the present article, we examine the influence of retrieval effects on cognitive maps using measures that have been shown to be affected both by the mode of acquisition of spatial knowledge (e.g., learning through maps vs. learning through navigation) and by goal at encoding. We first briefly review the evidence that our knowledge of the spatial world is affected by these variables at encoding and then address the motivation for examining retrieval context at recall. We present the results of three experiments showing that retrieval effects do indeed occur for two measures of cognitive maps: distance estimation between places and route descriptions (i.e., how one gets from one place to another). Perspective and Acquisition of Spatial KnowledgeThe way in which one learns about the environment and the goals one has when learning about it have both been shown to affect the construction of spatial representations of that environment. In relation to mode of acquisition, a distinction has been made between two types of spatial perspective associated with specific ways of representing the environment: route perspective and survey perspective. Survey perspectives are often associated with learning about an environment through maps. Map representations provide a bird's-eye (allocentric) view, reference locations to other locations, involve a stable orientation, and provide significant amounts of information at a given time (Taylor & Naylor, 2002). In contrast, route perspectives are associated with sequential procedural learning about one's environment through navigation (Allen & Kirasic, 1985) and with an egocentric, within-environment viewpoint in which orientation changes with each turn taken and information is limited to the visual field. Evidence for this distinction is widespread and now includes substantiation of the claim that certain brain structures are responsible for egocentric representations of the world whereas others In three experiments, we investigated how retrieval cues affect memory for cognitive maps. Participants first rated a list of landmarks either for the importance of the activity performed or for the frequency of visitation at each landmark (Experiments 1 and 2), or on ...

A new methodology examined the effects of action on memory for traversed distance using an imagined route traversal task. Blindfolded participants learned environments through auditory verbal description, imagining themselves walking in synchronization with metronome beats. Participants were turned during traversals, and performed an action at midroute. Memory for the newly learned environments was tested through recall (measured with metronome beats). Experiments 1–3 indicated that the number (but not amplitude) of turns while imagining walking a set distance leads to an increase in perceived distance at recall. Additionally, Experiment 2 found that rewalked distance immediately prior to performing an action at midroute was greater than rewalked distance immediately after action. However, Experiment 3 established that the effect was due to time spent at midroute rather than action per se. The similarity between spatial representation derived from imagined traversal and real traversal, and the relationship between distance and time estimation are discussed