Learning and Attention in ID and Categorization

Four observers completed identification and categorization tasks. Learning and attention processes were examined by applying General Recognition Theory (Ashby & Townsend, 1986) that separates low-level perceptual, high-level decisional, and attentional processes. Learning led to decision regions that became more nearly optimal. Learning had a small effect on perceptual processes in identification and decisional integration categorization tasks. However, perceptual processes were altered systematically in decisional selective attention categorization tasks, leading to perceptual selective attention that increased in magnitude with learning. These findings suggest (a) that identification and categorization often invoke decision strategies that are localized in the striatum (Ashby, et al, in press), and (b) that perceptual and decisional attention systems exist, and are mediated by distinct brain structures (Posner & Peterson, 1990).