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What is learned when learning to point at "invisible" targets?
1School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Australiad.arnold@psy.uq.edu.au.
Journal of Vision
|December 10, 2016
Summary
People can improve their ability to interact with invisible visual stimuli through training. This training enhances visual signal encoding, leading to better objective sensitivity and improved subjective visibility of masked images.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Visual Perception
Background:
- Binocular masking suppresses visual awareness but elicits activity in the human visual cortex.
- Training allows individuals to interact with subjectively invisible stimuli.
- The mechanisms of learning in such scenarios remain unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether training enhances the use of weak signals or improves signal encoding for masked visual input.
- To determine if enhanced objective sensitivity or better signal utilization underlies improved performance.
Main Methods:
- Participants trained for five days to reach and point at masked targets.
- Target intensity was set below individual pretraining detection thresholds.
- Objective thresholds and subjective visibility were measured before and after training.
Main Results:
- Training improved participants' ability to select the correct target location, despite subjective invisibility.
- Post-training objective detection thresholds improved significantly.
- The degree of objective improvement correlated with enhanced subjective visibility.
Conclusions:
- Training with subjectively invisible targets enhances the encoding of binocularly masked images.
- This suggests that the visual system can improve its sensitivity to stimuli below the threshold of awareness.
- Learned coordination with masked stimuli leads to measurable improvements in visual perception.
