VERBAL FACTOR IN NUMBER PERCEPTION

Sequences of light flashes, short tones and vibratory pulses were presented at rates of 13, 15 and 17 per two seconds. Swedish students with a good knowledge of English were used as subjects. Their task was to find out the number of stimuli by means of silent counting. They were told before each stimulus presentation whether they were to count in their mother tongue or in English. The results showed actual number to be underestimated in both conditions and at all presentation rates, this tendency being more pronounced when the subjects counted in English. The results are interpreted in terms of differences in inner pronounce-ability and coding capacity between the dominant and nondominant languages. © 1969.