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SELECTIVENESS OF THE EXPOSURE-BASED PERCEPTUAL LEARNING: WHAT TO LEARN AND WHAT NOT TO LEARN
1Department of Psychology, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA.
Learning & Perception
|May 11, 2010
Summary
The brain selectively learns task-irrelevant stimuli when they are temporally associated with attended tasks, paired with rewards, or are subliminal. This suggests similar mechanisms underlie both attended and unattended learning.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Perceptual Learning
Background:
- Historically, learning was thought to require attention to a stimulus.
- Task-irrelevant stimuli were believed not to be learned.
- This view was challenged by findings of task-irrelevant perceptual learning.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the conditions under which unattended stimuli are learned.
- To explore the similarities between task-relevant and task-irrelevant learning mechanisms.
- To propose a unified model for perceptual learning.
Main Methods:
- Review of recent studies on task-irrelevant perceptual learning.
- Analysis of selective learning criteria for unattended stimuli.
- Comparison of learning conditions for attended and unattended stimuli.
Main Results:
- Task-irrelevant learning occurs selectively.
- Conditions include temporal association with attended targets.
- Synchronous presentation with rewards and subliminal properties are also key factors.
Conclusions:
- Learning is not strictly dependent on attention.
- Task-irrelevant learning shares properties with task-relevant learning.
- A unified model incorporating similar mechanisms for both is proposed.
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