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Effects of daily training amount on visual motion perceptual learning
Yongqian Song1,2,3,4, Nihong Chen5,6,7, Fang Fang1,2,3,8
1School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Journal of Vision
|April 13, 2021
Summary
Less daily training for visual perceptual learning can yield similar behavioral improvements and greater transfer to new directions. This challenges the "practice makes perfect" assumption in visual system plasticity studies.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Visual System Plasticity
Background:
- Perceptual learning is a key model for studying adult visual system plasticity.
- Traditional protocols often involve extensive daily practice over weeks, assuming more practice equals more learning.
- The precise relationship between training volume and behavioral gains remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of varying daily training amounts on motion direction discrimination.
- To assess the effect of training volume on learning transfer to untrained directions.
- To determine if extensive practice is necessary for robust perceptual learning.
Main Methods:
- Four groups trained in motion direction discrimination over 8 days.
- Daily trial counts varied: 40, 120, 360, or 1080 trials per day.
- Behavioral improvement and transfer were measured immediately post-training and 2 weeks later.
Main Results:
- All training groups showed comparable levels of perceptual improvement, irrespective of daily trial count.
- Learning effects persisted for at least two weeks across all groups.
- The group with the lowest daily training (40 trials) exhibited significantly greater transfer to untrained directions compared to the highest training group (1080 trials).
Conclusions:
- Perceptual learning in motion direction discrimination is not strictly dependent on high daily training volumes.
- Reduced daily practice can lead to equivalent learning outcomes and enhanced generalization.
- These findings suggest optimizing perceptual learning protocols by potentially reducing training load to maximize transfer.
