The Approximate Number System Acuity Redefined: A Diffusion Model Approach

Joonkoo Park, Jeffrey J. Starns

While all humans are capable of non-verbally representing numerical quantity using so-called the approximate number system (ANS), there exist considerable individual differences in its acuity. For example, in a non-symbolic number comparison task, some people find it easy to discriminate brief presentations of 14 dots from 16 dots while others do not. Quantifying individual ANS acuity from such a task has become an essential practice in the field, as individual differences in such a primitive number sense is thought to provide insights into individual differences in learned symbolic math abilities. However, the dominant method of characterizing ANS acuity-computing the Weber fraction (w)-only utilizes the accuracy data while ignoring response times (RT). Here, we offer a novel approach of quantifying ANS acuity by using the diffusion model, which accounts both accuracy and RT distributions. Specifically, the drift rate in the diffusion model, which indexes the quality of the stimulus information, is used to capture the precision of the internal quantity representation. Analysis of behavioral data shows that w is contaminated by speed-accuracy tradeoff, making it problematic as a measure of ANS acuity, while drift rate provides a measure more independent from speed-accuracy criterion settings. Furthermore, drift rate is a better predictor of symbolic math ability than w, suggesting a practical utility of the measure. These findings demonstrate critical limitations of the use of w and suggest clear advantages of using drift rate as a measure of primitive numerical competence.