Most people are able to automatically and subliminally count a number of descrete objects contained in a small portion of the visual field. We do this every day, for example, with coins. We can immediately "see" there are three coins -- we do not have to count them. Although I know of no hard data on the topic, this ability appears to stop at around five objects. After there are more than five objects, as you probably know from your own experience, you are usually tempted to count the objects separately.

Geometry also appears to be a factor. Obviously,

XXXX

XXXX

there are eight objects here -- and this can be seen very rapidly. However, this arangement

              X         

          X                    X


                                            X




                      X                                          X




                                       X



                                    X

is not nearly as easy to decode. This may seem like a very trivial observation, but contemporary empirical psychology is concerned with discovering the automatic, built-in mechanisms of the mind/brain. These are fundamental clues about how the mind/brain works.

Although I know of no research on the matter, it may be that in some individuals have an extraordinary ability to automatically count numbers of small objects. The film Rainman is about an idiot savant who, among other things, was able to instantly "count" over 200 toothpicks when an entire box was emptied on the ground. The story is based on a real individual, and I do not know he could actually do this, but such an ability seems to me to be possible.

Recently, it has been shown that

SOME ANIMALS ALSO HAVE THIS ABILITY.

Animals do not (that we know of!) "count" the objects -- but, apparently using a mechanism similar to the one hard-wired into the human brain -- they have an automatic or "subconscious" awareness of the number of objects commanding their immediate attention. They are even able to do elementary math on the basis of this knowledge! For example, suppose the animal sees food being deposited at Location A and Location B. Three pieces of food are placed at Location A, but two are taken away. Two bits of food are placed at Location B. The animal discerns that there is more food at Location B. Elementary to us, but the entire concept that animals can "count," even in the crudest sense contradicts a long-standing tradition in Western thought: the concept of numbers and everything concerning their manipulation is supposed to belong exclusively to the human realm.