Perceptual learning of task-irrelevant features depends on the sensory context
Perceptual learning of task-irrelevant features depends on the sensory context
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DOI：
10.1038/s41598-019-38586-8
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发表时间：
2019-02-07
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Watanabe, Takeo
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bruns, Patrick;Watanabe, Takeo
大脑已经进化到从环境中提取有行为意义的信息。例如，已经表明，当与任务无关的刺激特征始终与内部或外部强化信号配对时，视觉感知学习（VPL）可以发生。然而，目前还不清楚是否任务无关的VPL是由刺激功能无关，在给定的感官环境中的强化的影响。为了解决这个问题，我们暴露参与者的任务无关和阈下连贯的运动刺激的背景下，而他们执行的中心字符识别任务。一个特定的运动方向始终配对的任务目标，而其他两个方向只发生干扰，因此，无关的强化。我们发现，VPL的大小的目标配对方向是显着更大的时，分心物配对方向接近目标配对方向，相比，当他们更远。因此，即使是非常微弱的信号，都是阈下和无关的强化处理，并施加影响VPL。这一发现表明，VPL的结果取决于学习发生的感觉环境，并要求对VPL理论进行改进，以纳入基于学习的影响。
The brain has evolved to extract behaviourally meaningful information from the environment. For example, it has been shown that visual perceptual learning (VPL) can occur for task-irrelevant stimulus features when those features are consistently paired with internal or external reinforcement signals. It is, however, unclear whether or not task-irrelevant VPL is influenced by stimulus features that are unrelated to reinforcement in a given sensory context. To address this question, we exposed participants to task-irrelevant and subliminal coherent motion stimuli in the background while they performed a central character identification task. A specific motion direction was consistently paired with the task-targets, while two other directions occurred only with distractors and, thus, were unrelated to reinforcement. We found that the magnitude of VPL of the target-paired direction was significantly greater when the distractor-paired directions were close to the target-paired direction, compared to when they were farther. Thus, even very weak signals that are both subliminal and unrelated to reinforcement are processed and exert an influence on VPL. This finding suggests that the outcome of VPL depends on the sensory context in which learning takes place and calls for a refinement of VPL theories to incorporate exposure-based influences on learning.