Can Theories of Animal Discrimination Explain Perceptual Learning in Humans?
Can Theories of Animal Discrimination Explain Perceptual Learning in Humans?
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DOI：
10.1037/a0032765
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发表时间：
2014-01-01
影响因子：
22.4
通讯作者：
Hall, Geoffrey
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Mitchell, Chris;Hall, Geoffrey
我们提出了一个审查最近的研究进行知觉学习与非人类动物。这项研究的重点是阐明的机制，仅仅暴露于一对相似的刺激可以增加这些刺激的区别的容易程度。这些研究确立了两种机制的重要作用，一种机制涉及刺激的独特特征之间的抑制性关联，另一种机制涉及增强这些特征的相对显著性的长期习惯化过程。然后，我们研究了最近的工作，调查与人类参与者等同的感知学习程序。我们的目的是确定人类所表现出的现象在多大程度上可以用动物研究揭示的机制来解释。虽然我们没有发现证据表明，联想抑制有助于人类的感知学习效果，初始检测的独特功能（那些允许2个类似的刺激之间的歧视）似乎取决于一个习惯化的过程。一旦发现了独特的特征，关注这些特征并了解其属性的倾向会增强随后的辨别力。我们的结论是，与人类获得的影响从事机制，除了那些在动物中看到的，但认为，在大多数情况下，这些都有他们的基础，在学习过程中是共同的动物和人。在最后一节中，我们讨论了知觉学习的分析对实验心理学其他方面的影响，并考虑了一些潜在的应用。
We present a review of recent studies of perceptual learning conducted with nonhuman animals. The focus of this research has been to elucidate the mechanisms by which mere exposure to a pair of similar stimuli can increase the ease with which those stimuli are discriminated. These studies establish an important role for 2 mechanisms, one involving inhibitory associations between the unique features of the stimuli, the other involving a long-term habituation process that enhances the relative salience of these features. We then examine recent work investigating equivalent perceptual learning procedures with human participants. Our aim is to determine the extent to which the phenomena exhibited by people are susceptible to explanation in terms of the mechanisms revealed by the animal studies. Although we find no evidence that associative inhibition contributes to the perceptual learning effect in humans, initial detection of unique features (those that allow discrimination between 2 similar stimuli) appears to depend on an habituation process. Once the unique features have been detected, a tendency to attend to those features and to learn about their properties enhances subsequent discrimination. We conclude that the effects obtained with humans engage mechanisms additional to those seen in animals but argue that, for the most part, these have their basis in learning processes that are common to animals and people. In a final section, we discuss some implications of this analysis of perceptual learning for other aspects of experimental psychology and consider some potential applications.