Visual statistical learning based on the perceptual and semantic information of objects

Five experiments examined what is learned based on the perceptual and semantic information of objects in visual statistical learning (VSL). In the familiarization phase, participants viewed a sequence of line drawings and detected repetitions of various objects. In a subsequent test phase, they watched 2 test sequences (statistically related triplets vs. unrelated foils) and decided whether the first or second sequence was more familiar based on the familiarization phase. In Experiment 1A, the test sequences comprised line drawings; in Experiment 1B, they comprised word stimuli representing each line drawing. The results showed that performance for statistically related triplets was greater than chance. In Experiments 2 and 3 containing the forward ABC and backward CBA triplets in the test, the results showed the importance of temporal order, especially in line drawings. In Experiment 4, in which the forward triplets were pitted against the backward triplets, we showed that temporal order is still important for the expression of VSL with word stimuli. Finally, in Experiment 5, we replicated the results of Experiments 2 and 3 even with the images of visual objects. These results suggest the parallel processes on the visual features and semantic information of objects in VSL.