Numerosity Adaptation Effect with Three-Surface Stimuli

Humans and animals can rapidly estimate the approximate number of items in a scene. Recent studies have shown that numerosity, like many other perceptual attributes, is susceptible to adaptation. The main purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of the basic mechanisms governing number perception by conducting experiments on numerosity adaptation using multi-surface stimuli, in particular three-surface stimuli. In the experiments, adaptation experiments were conducted using a combination of one-surface and three-surface stimuli. We confirmed an adaptation effect when the number of surfaces of the adaptation, test, and comparison stimuli was not equal, and no adaptation effect was confirmed when the number of surfaces was equal. These results support the prediction. Overall, this study provides new insights into numerosity adaptation with three-surface stimuli and demonstrates the possible influence of depth perception on the processing mechanism of number perception.