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The relationship between initial threshold, learning, and generalization in perceptual learning

We investigated the origin of two previously reported general rules of perceptual learning. First, the initial discrimination thresholds and the amount of learning were found to be related through a Weber-like law. Second, increased training length negatively influenced the observer's ability t...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Lengyel, Gábor, Fiser, József
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6487893/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31022729
http://dx.doi.org/10.1167/19.4.28
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author Lengyel, Gábor
Fiser, József
author_facet Lengyel, Gábor
Fiser, József
author_sort Lengyel, Gábor
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description We investigated the origin of two previously reported general rules of perceptual learning. First, the initial discrimination thresholds and the amount of learning were found to be related through a Weber-like law. Second, increased training length negatively influenced the observer's ability to generalize the obtained knowledge to a new context. Using a five-day training protocol, separate groups of observers were trained to perform discrimination around two different reference values of either contrast (73% and 30%) or orientation (25° and 0°). In line with previous research, we found a Weber-like law between initial performance and the amount of learning, regardless of whether the tested attribute was contrast or orientation. However, we also showed that this relationship directly reflected observers' perceptual scaling function relating physical intensities to perceptual magnitudes, suggesting that participants learned equally on their internal perceptual space in all conditions. In addition, we found that with the typical five-day training period, the extent of generalization was proportional to the amount of learning, seemingly contradicting the previously reported diminishing generalization with practice. This result suggests that the negative link between generalization and the length of training found in earlier studies might have been due to overfitting after longer training and not directly due to the amount of learning per se.
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spelling pubmed-64878932019-05-16 The relationship between initial threshold, learning, and generalization in perceptual learning Lengyel, Gábor Fiser, József J Vis Article We investigated the origin of two previously reported general rules of perceptual learning. First, the initial discrimination thresholds and the amount of learning were found to be related through a Weber-like law. Second, increased training length negatively influenced the observer's ability to generalize the obtained knowledge to a new context. Using a five-day training protocol, separate groups of observers were trained to perform discrimination around two different reference values of either contrast (73% and 30%) or orientation (25° and 0°). In line with previous research, we found a Weber-like law between initial performance and the amount of learning, regardless of whether the tested attribute was contrast or orientation. However, we also showed that this relationship directly reflected observers' perceptual scaling function relating physical intensities to perceptual magnitudes, suggesting that participants learned equally on their internal perceptual space in all conditions. In addition, we found that with the typical five-day training period, the extent of generalization was proportional to the amount of learning, seemingly contradicting the previously reported diminishing generalization with practice. This result suggests that the negative link between generalization and the length of training found in earlier studies might have been due to overfitting after longer training and not directly due to the amount of learning per se. The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology 2019-04-25 /pmc/articles/PMC6487893/ /pubmed/31022729 http://dx.doi.org/10.1167/19.4.28 Text en Copyright 2019 The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
spellingShingle Article
Lengyel, Gábor
Fiser, József
The relationship between initial threshold, learning, and generalization in perceptual learning
title The relationship between initial threshold, learning, and generalization in perceptual learning
title_full The relationship between initial threshold, learning, and generalization in perceptual learning
title_fullStr The relationship between initial threshold, learning, and generalization in perceptual learning
title_full_unstemmed The relationship between initial threshold, learning, and generalization in perceptual learning
title_short The relationship between initial threshold, learning, and generalization in perceptual learning
title_sort relationship between initial threshold, learning, and generalization in perceptual learning
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6487893/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31022729
http://dx.doi.org/10.1167/19.4.28
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