Inhibition in dot comparison tasks

Abstract

Dot comparison tasks are commonly used to index an individual's Approximate Number System (ANS) acuity, but the cognitive processes involved in completing these tasks are poorly understood. Here we investigated how factors including numerosity ratio, set size and visual cues influence task performance. Forty--four children aged 7--9 years completed a dot comparison task with a range of to--be--compared numerosities. We found that as the size of the numerosities increased, with ratios held constant, accuracy decreased due to the heightened salience of incongruent visual information.Furthermore, in trials with larger numerosities participants' accuracies were influenced more by the convex hull of the array than the average dot size. The numerosity ratio between the arrays in each trial was an important predictor for all set sizes. We argue that these findings are consistent with a 'competing processes' inhibition--based account, where accuracy scores are influenced by individual differences in both ANS acuity and inhibitory control skills.

Congruency effects in dot comparison tasks: convex hull is more important than dot area

“…These studies add further evidence that participants’ performance on dot comparison tasks is influenced by characteristics of the task (Clayton et al., 2015; Clayton & Gilmore, 2015; DeWind & Brannon, 2016; Gebuis & Reynvoet, 2012; Inglis & Gilmore, 2013, 2014; Price et al., 2012; Smets et al., 2015). In particular, we have shown that the visual characteristics of dot arrays affect the accuracy of numerosity judgements, and therefore performance on dot comparison tasks is not a pure measure of the acuity of ANS representations.…”

“…It has been shown that performance on dot comparison tasks, and hence estimates of ANS acuity, are influenced by the numerosity of the dot arrays (Clayton & Gilmore, 2015), the method of presentation (i.e. sequential vs. simultaneous; Price, Palmer, Battista, & Ansari, 2012), the display time (Inglis & Gilmore, 2013) and the measure of performance used (e.g.…”

“…While adults’ dot comparison performance is only influenced by convex hull (Clayton et al., 2015), numerosity judgements of children aged 7–9 years old are influenced by both the convex hull and the cumulative surface area of dots in an array (Clayton & Gilmore, 2015). This appears to indicate that convex hull information is more difficult to inhibit than cumulative surface area information, when making numerosity judgements.…”

Exploring the approximate number system in Sotos syndrome: insights from a dot comparison task

“…Furthermore, it has been suggested that accuracy on incongruent trials, rather than congruent trials, is related to mathematical achievement and that the relationship between the ANS and mathematical achievement can be attributed to the confound of inhibitory control (Gilmore et al . ; Clayton & Gilmore ). Specifically, poor inhibitory control may result in difficulty inhibiting an incorrect response to incongruent trials, resulting in participants selecting the set with larger individual dots, rather than a larger quantity of dots.…”

“…Consequently, poor performance on incongruent trials of the dot comparison task has been associated with poor inhibitory control, as these trials require the participant to inhibit a response based purely on stimulus characteristics (Gilmore et al . ; Clayton & Gilmore ). Thus, it has been suggested that the relationship between the ANS and mathematical achievement is attributable to the confound of inhibitory control (Gilmore et al .…”