Visual Perceptual Learning and its Specificity and Transfer: A New Perspective

Visual perceptual learning is known to be location and orientation specific, and is thus assumed to reflect the neuronal plasticity in the early visual cortex. However, in recent studies we created “Double training” and “TPE” procedures to demonstrate that these “fundamental” specificities can be decoupled from perceptual learning and that learning can completely transfer to a new location or orientation. We proposed a rule-based learning theory to reinterpret perceptual learning and its specificity and transfer: A high-level decision unit learns the rules of performing a visual task through training. However, the learned rules cannot be applied to a new location or orientation automatically because the decision unit cannot functionally connect to new visual inputs that are likely suppressed by multi-session training and focused spatial/feature attention on trained location and orientation. It is double training and TPE training that reactivate these new inputs, so that the functional connections can be strengthened to enable rule application and learning transfer. I will report new experimental evidence that will provide further insights into the mechanisms underlying perceptual learning and its specificity and transfer. The University of Hong Kong Department of Psychology Departmental Seminar