IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0223192.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The association of brightness with number/duration in human newborns

Author

Listed:
  • Cory D Bonn
  • Maria-Eirini Netskou
  • Arlette Streri
  • Maria Dolores de Hevia

Abstract

Human neonates spontaneously associate changes in magnitude across the dimensions of number, length, and duration. Do these particular associations generalize to other pairs of magnitudes in the same way at birth, or do they reflect an early predisposition to expect specific relations between spatial, temporal, and numerical representations? To begin to answer this question, we investigated how strongly newborns associated auditory sequences changing in number/duration with visual objects changing in levels of brightness. We tested forty-eight newborn infants in one of three, bimodal stimulus conditions in which auditory numbers/durations increased or decreased from a familiarization trial to the two test trials. Auditory numbers/durations were paired with visual objects in familiarization that remained the same on one test trial but changed in luminance/contrast or shape on the other. On average, results indicated that newborns looked longer when changes in brightness accompanied the number/duration change as compared to no change, a preference that was most consistent when the brightness change was congruent with the number/duration change. For incongruent changes, this preference depended on trial order. Critically, infants showed no preference for a shape change over no shape change, indicating that infants likely treated brightness differently than a generic feature. Though this performance pattern is somewhat similar to previously documented associations, these findings suggest that cross-magnitude associations among number, length, and duration may be more specialized at birth, rather than emerge gradually from postnatal experience or maturation.

Suggested Citation

  • Cory D Bonn & Maria-Eirini Netskou & Arlette Streri & Maria Dolores de Hevia, 2019. "The association of brightness with number/duration in human newborns," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(10), pages 1-23, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0223192
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223192
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0223192
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0223192&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0223192?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Konrad P Körding & Ulrik Beierholm & Wei Ji Ma & Steven Quartz & Joshua B Tenenbaum & Ladan Shams, 2007. "Causal Inference in Multisensory Perception," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 2(9), pages 1-10, September.
    2. Maria Dolores de Hevia & Elizabeth S Spelke, 2013. "Not All Continuous Dimensions Map Equally: Number-Brightness Mapping in Human Infants," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(11), pages 1-9, November.
    3. Hermann Bulf & Viola Macchi Cassia & Maria Dolores de Hevia, 2014. "Are Numbers, Size and Brightness Equally Efficient in Orienting Visual Attention? Evidence from an Eye-Tracking Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(6), pages 1-6, June.
    4. Celeste Kidd & Steven T Piantadosi & Richard N Aslin, 2012. "The Goldilocks Effect: Human Infants Allocate Attention to Visual Sequences That Are Neither Too Simple Nor Too Complex," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(5), pages 1-8, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Amy A Kalia & Paul R Schrater & Gordon E Legge, 2013. "Combining Path Integration and Remembered Landmarks When Navigating without Vision," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(9), pages 1-8, September.
    2. Dimitrije Marković & Jan Gläscher & Peter Bossaerts & John O’Doherty & Stefan J Kiebel, 2015. "Modeling the Evolution of Beliefs Using an Attentional Focus Mechanism," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-34, October.
    3. repec:plo:pone00:0003832 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Giovanni Cassani & Robert Grimm & Walter Daelemans & Steven Gillis, 2018. "Lexical category acquisition is facilitated by uncertainty in distributional co-occurrences," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(12), pages 1-36, December.
    5. Alexandr Ten & Pramod Kaushik & Pierre-Yves Oudeyer & Jacqueline Gottlieb, 2021. "Humans monitor learning progress in curiosity-driven exploration," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
    6. Adam N Sanborn & Ulrik R Beierholm, 2016. "Fast and Accurate Learning When Making Discrete Numerical Estimates," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(4), pages 1-28, April.
    7. Jennifer Laura Lee & Wei Ji Ma, 2021. "Point-estimating observer models for latent cause detection," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(10), pages 1-29, October.
    8. Francesco Poli & Yi-Lin Li & Pravallika Naidu & Rogier B. Mars & Sabine Hunnius & Azzurra Ruggeri, 2024. "Toddlers strategically adapt their information search," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    9. Guido Marco Cicchini & Giovanni D’Errico & David Charles Burr, 2022. "Crowding results from optimal integration of visual targets with contextual information," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    10. repec:plo:pone00:0180585 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Santiago Alonso-Diaz, 2024. "A human-like artificial intelligence for mathematics," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 23(1), pages 79-97, December.
    12. Peter W Battaglia & Daniel Kersten & Paul R Schrater, 2011. "How Haptic Size Sensations Improve Distance Perception," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(6), pages 1-13, June.
    13. Luigi Acerbi & Kalpana Dokka & Dora E Angelaki & Wei Ji Ma, 2018. "Bayesian comparison of explicit and implicit causal inference strategies in multisensory heading perception," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(7), pages 1-38, July.
    14. Anna-Lena Eckert & Elena Fuehrer & Christina Schmitter & Benjamin Straube & Katja Fiehler & Dominik Endres, 2025. "Modelling sensory attenuation as Bayesian causal inference across two datasets," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(1), pages 1-27, January.
    15. repec:plo:pbio00:1002073 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Nazia Parveen & Maryam Khalid & Muhammad Azam & Dr. Afshan Khalid & Dr. Abid Hussain & Dr. Munir Ahmad, 2023. "Unravelling the impact of Perceived Parental Styles on Curiosity and Exploration," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 12(4), pages 254-263.
    17. Ksander N de Winkel & Mikhail Katliar & Heinrich H Bülthoff, 2017. "Causal Inference in Multisensory Heading Estimation," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(1), pages 1-20, January.
    18. Hermann Bulf & Viola Macchi Cassia & Maria Dolores de Hevia, 2014. "Are Numbers, Size and Brightness Equally Efficient in Orienting Visual Attention? Evidence from an Eye-Tracking Study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(6), pages 1-6, June.
    19. repec:plo:pone00:0183776 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Christoph Kayser & Ladan Shams, 2015. "Multisensory Causal Inference in the Brain," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(2), pages 1-7, February.
    21. Jacqueline M Fulvio & C Shawn Green & Paul R Schrater, 2014. "Task-Specific Response Strategy Selection on the Basis of Recent Training Experience," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(1), pages 1-16, January.
    22. David R Wozny & Ulrik R Beierholm & Ladan Shams, 2010. "Probability Matching as a Computational Strategy Used in Perception," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(8), pages 1-7, August.
    23. Pedram Daee & Maryam S Mirian & Majid Nili Ahmadabadi, 2014. "Reward Maximization Justifies the Transition from Sensory Selection at Childhood to Sensory Integration at Adulthood," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(7), pages 1-13, July.
    24. Elisabeth A. Karuza & Ari E. Kahn & Danielle S. Bassett, 2019. "Human Sensitivity to Community Structure Is Robust to Topological Variation," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2019, pages 1-8, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0223192. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.