Perceptual Learning: Toward a Comprehensive Theory

Toward a perceptual theory of transparency.

Theories of perceptual transparency have typically been developed within the context of a physical model that generates the percept of transparency (F. Metelli's episcotister model, 1974b). Here 2 fundamental questions are investigated: (a) When does the visual system initiate the percept of one surface seen through another? (b) How does it assign surface properties to a transparent layer? Resu...

Toward a Comprehensive Theory of Racial Oppression

1. Initiation of Oppression: At an early point in time, the European colonialists established hierarchical group relations with the peoples they oppressed and exploited for their land and labor. Soon this hierarchy of oppression was explained in racial terms. The subordinated groups were viewed as biologically and culturally inferior races. This racialized oppression has never been eradicated a...

Toward a Theory of Learning

Toward a unified theory of decision criterion learning in perceptual categorization.

Optimal decision criterion placement maximizes expected reward and requires sensitivity to the category base rates (prior probabilities) and payoffs (costs and benefits of incorrect and correct responding). When base rates are unequal, human decision criterion is nearly optimal, but when payoffs are unequal, suboptimal decision criterion placement is observed, even when the optimal decision cri...

Gibson’s Theory of Perceptual Learning

This article describes the key ideas of the influential psychologist Eleanor J. Gibson, developed over 70 years of research with infants, children, adults, and a wide range of nonhuman species. Gibson’s ecological approach to perceptual learning and development describes how perception – extracting meaningful information from the environment to guide actions adaptively – improves with experienc...