Subitizing in congenitally blind adults

• Published in: Psychonomic bulletin & review Vol. 17; no. 6; pp. 840 - 845
• Main Authors: Ferrand, Ludovic, Riggs, Kevin J., Castronovo, Julie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer-Verlag 01.12.2010; Springer; Springer Nature B.V; Psychonomic Society
• Subjects: Adult; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Blindness; Blindness - physiopathology; Brief Report; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive Psychology; Cognitive science; Experimental psychology; Female; Fingers - physiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Handicap; Humans; Male; Perception; Psychology; Psychology and medicine; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reaction Time; Sensory perception; Tactile perception; Touch - physiology; Touch Perception - physiology; Young Adult; Blind Subject; Bilinear Function; Blind Participant; Visual Deprivation; Tactile Perception; Human; Tactile sensitivity; Eye disease; Vision disorder; Blindness; Perception; Adult; Experimental study; Congenital disease; Counting
• ISSN: 1069-9384; 1531-5320; 1531-5320
• DOI: 10.3758/PBR.17.6.840

We investigated the role of vision in tactile enumeration within and outside the subitizing range. Congenitally blind and sighted (blindfolded) participants were asked to enumerate quickly and accurately the number of fingers stimulated. Both groups of participants enumerated one to three fingers quickly and accurately but were much slower and less accurate with four to nine fingers. Within the subitizing range, blind participants performed no differently from both sighted (blindfolded) and sighted-seeing participants. Outside of the subitizing range, blind and sighted-seeing participants showed better performance than did sighted-blindfolded participants, suggesting that lack of access to the predominant sensory modality does affect performance. Together, these findings further support the claim that subitizing is a general perceptual mechanism and demonstrate that vision is not necessary for the development of the subitizing mechanism.