What is new in perceptual learning?

Aline Françoise Cretenoud, Lukasz Grzeczkowski, Michael Herzog
Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), 2017
Journal paper

Abstract

What is new in perceptual learning? In the early days of research, specificity was the hallmark of perceptual learning; that is, improvements following training were limited to the trained stimulus features. For example, training with a stimulus improves performance for this stimulus but not for the same stimulus when rotated by 908 (Ball & Sekuler, 1987; Spang, Grimsen, Herzog, & Fahle, 2010). Because of this specificity, learning was thought to be mediated by neural changes at the early stages of vision. In the last decade, many procedures were discovered in which transfer occurs from trained to untrained conditions under certain conditions. The location of learning is now often thought to occur in higher stage of vision and decision-making. This special issue shows how the field has progressed along these lines.

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https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/226998?ln=en

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Perceptual learning is specific beyond vision and decision making

Aline Françoise Cretenoud, Lukasz Grzeczkowski, Michael Herzog, Fred Mast

Perceptual learning is usually assumed to occur within sensory areas or when sensory evidence is mapped onto decisions. Subsequent procedural and motor processes, involved in most perceptual learning experiments, are thought to play no role in the learning process. Here, we show that this is not the case. Observers trained with a standard three-line bisection task and indicated the offset direction of the central line by pressing either a left or right push button. Before and after training, observers adjusted the central line of the same bisection stimulus using a computer mouse. As expected, performance improved through training. Surprisingly, learning did not transfer to the untrained mouse adjustment condition. The same was true for the opposite, i.e., training with mouse adjustments did not transfer to the push button condition. We found partial transfer when observers adjusted the central line with two different adjustment procedures. We suggest that perceptual learning is specific to procedural motor aspects beyond visual processing. Our results support theories were visual stimuli are coded together with their corresponding actions.

Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology2017

, , ,

BACKGROUND: An auditory perceptual learning paradigm was used to investigate whether implicit memories are formed during general anesthesia. METHODS: Eighty-seven patients who had an American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status of I-III and were scheduled to undergo an elective surgery with general anesthesia were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group received auditory stimulation during surgery, whereas the other did not. The auditory stimulation consisted of pure tones presented via headphones. The Bispectral Index level was maintained between 40 and 50 during surgery. To assess learning, patients performed an auditory frequency discrimination task after surgery, and comparisons were made between the groups. General anesthesia was induced with thiopental and maintained with a mixture of fentanyl and sevoflurane. RESULTS: There was no difference in the amount of learning between the two groups (mean +/- SD improvement: stimulated patients 9.2 +/- 11.3 Hz, controls 9.4 +/- 14.1 Hz). There was also no difference in initial thresholds (mean +/- SD initial thresholds: stimulated patients 31.1 +/- 33.4 Hz, controls 28.4 +/- 34.2 Hz). These results suggest that perceptual learning was not induced during anesthesia. No correlation between the bispectral index and the initial level of performance was found (Pearson r = -0.09, P = 0.59). CONCLUSION: Perceptual learning was not induced by repetitive auditory stimulation during anesthesia. This result may indicate that perceptual learning requires top-down processing, which is suppressed by the anesthetic.

Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins2009

Perceptual learning with spatial uncertainties

Michael Herzog, Thomas Otto

In perceptual learning, stimuli are usually assumed to be presented to a constant retinal location during training. However, due to tremor, drift, and microsaccades of the eyes, the same stimulus covers different retinal positions on sequential trials. Because of these variations the mathematical decision problem changes from linear to non-linear (). This non-linearity implies three predictions. First, varying the spatial position of a stimulus within a moderate range does not deteriorate perceptual learning. Second, improvement for one stimulus variant can yield negative transfer to other variants. Third, interleaved training with two stimulus variants yields no or strongly diminished learning. Using a bisection task, we found psychophysical evidence for the first and last prediction. However, no negative transfer was found as opposed to the second prediction.

Elsevier2006