There has long been interest in how the mind represents numerical magnitude, particularly in the absence of symbols. For humans and nonhuman animals, number represents a core dimension of perceptual experience by which objects in the physical world are delineated. The physical world is also well characterized by other dimensions, many of which covary with number. Yet, the general consensus is that number is perceived independently of other magnitudes that co-occur with it. Here, we present evidence against the independence of number perception. In particular, we use evidence from neuroimaging, computational modeling, visual illusions, and psychophysics to introduce a novel theory of visual number encoding, wherein nonnumerical magnitude information such as cumulative surface area is encoded along with number and sustained throughout visual perception. Moreover, we propose that the experience of number per se reflects the readout of a multidimensional (i.e., integral) representation vis-à-vis selective attention, not the independent encoding of number.

中文翻译：

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感知数字编码理论。

长期以来，人们一直对大脑如何表示数值大小感兴趣，尤其是在没有符号的情况下。对于人类和非人类动物，数字代表了感知体验的核心维度，通过它来描绘物理世界中的物体。物理世界还具有其他维度的特征，其中许多维度与数字共变。然而，普遍的共识是，数字的感知独立于与其同时出现的其他量级。在这里，我们提供了反对数字感知独立性的证据。特别是，我们使用来自神经影像学、计算模型、视觉错觉和心理物理学的证据来介绍一种新的视觉数字编码理论，其中非数值大小信息（例如累积表面积）与数字一起编码，并在整个视觉感知过程中持续存在。此外，我们提出数字本身的经验反映了相对于选择性注意的多维（即积分）表示的读出，而不是数字的独立编码。