Showing papers on "Perceptual learning published in 1976"

The Context Effect: The Relationship Between Stimulus Preexposure and Environmental Preexposure Determines Subsequent Learning.

Abstract: Perceptual learning studies indicate that stimulus preexposure enhances subsequent learning, while latent inhibition studies indicate that stimulus preexposure retards subsequent learning. An analysis of the two paradigms suggests that predictions in regard to the effects of stimulus preexposure must take into account not only the novelty of the stimulus, but the relationship of that novelty to that of the environment at the time of testing. Two studies with identical designs, one with children and one with rats, are reported. In both studies, enhancement of learning is achieved when a new stimulus is presented in an old environment or an old stimulus in a new environment as compared to either a new stimulus in a new environment or • an old stimulus in an old environment. This demonstrates latent inhibition and perceptual learning, and shows that the direction of the effects of stimulus preexposure is dependent on the relative novelty of the environment. A two-process theory based on enhancing salience through conditioning and arousal is proposed to account for the pattern of results.

4: Psychology of Learning Environments: Behavioral, Structural, or Perceptual?

Abstract: Before overviewing the purpose and parts of this chapter, it may be helpful to mention the general features of the three models of learning process that are contrasted in the discussion (Figure 1). In the behavioral model the teacher presents stimuli to the student, observes or psychometrically assesses the responses, and selectively reinforces them by reward and punishment. In the structural model, the preprogrammed development of internal mechanisms mainly determines the course of learning; the teacher stimulates the maturation of these mechanisms, draws them out, or provides the environment in which they can be acted upon or be concretized. The perceptual model allows for behavioral and structural mechanisms but holds that the student's con-

Learning-like phenomena in stereopsis

Abstract: WHEN confronted with Julesz random-dot stereograms1 for the first time, naive observers often need as long as a minute or more to see a global figure in depth. With repeated exposure to the stereograms this perception time is progressively reduced until they begin to see depth almost instantaneously2. This acceleration of the stereoscopic process over successive trials is a remarkable example of perceptual learning2,3, and unlike many other kinds of perceptual learning it seems to be a purely visual effect. Further, stereopsis is a basic visual function for which much of the processing may occur as early as the prestriate cortex4. It is important to note that learning-like changes can affect such a process, and knowledge of elementary visual function may be helpful in determining just what is learned. Here I explore the position specificity of stereo-learning, and find that in most observers a significant proportion of the learning that is acquired in one retinal area does not transfer to neighbouring areas. One question raised by this finding is whether such position specificity necessarily implies localisation of the learning process to specific anatomical areas in the brain.

Practice effects for auditory localization: a test of a differentiation theory of perceptual learning and development.

Abstract: Practice and transfer of practice in an auditory localization task were observed for three different information conditions (normal, transformed and reduced) to examine four aspects of Gibson's (1969) differentiation theory of perceptual learning and development. Support was found for the propositions that: (i) dimensions of difference, rather than prototypes, are learned; (ii) specificity is a more appropriate response measure than number of correct responses; (iii) perceptual learning will occur regardless of whether feedback is given or not; (iv) transfer of practice will be greater if dimensions of difference (as opposed to prototypes) are learned. It was also found that feedback during practice did not affect transfer. In an apparent contradiction though, specificity increased in the absence of dimension of difference. This increase was interpreted as being associated with the detection of non-task-related information and was seen as lending support to Gibson's hypothesis that, perceptual learning is motivated by intrinsic cognitive drive and is terminated by a reduction in subjective uncertainty.

The perceptual nature of visual imagery

Abstract: This study was concerned with visual imagery conceived in general terms as the mental event involved in the subjective experience of "seeing" absent objects. Most recent studies of visual imagery, in this sense, have been concerned with its usefulness, rather than with its ix nature. The present study departed from this purely functionalist standpoint and investigated a specific question concerning the nature of visual imagerynamely, the question of whether this subjectively perception-like experience, and the processes giving rise to it are, tn fact, perceptual in nature. The reasons for this departure are outlined in Part I (Chapter I) of the thesis. Before this question could be investigated experimentally, it was necessary to select an index, or manipulation, of visual imagery. This needed to control the presence and absence of the particular me~tal process of interest (and not other modes of recalling, or representing, absent objects}, so that the performance of subjects employing it could be compared with the performance of subjects not doing so. Only by such a comparison is it possible to determine whether visual imagery has a special relationship to visual perception, or whether it is no more closely allied to perception than are other methods of representation or reca 11 . Part II of the thesis, then, is concerned with studies oriented to this methodological problem. Experiments I and II (Chapter 2) showed that three common manipulations of visual imagery (varying noun concreteness, varying instructions, and selecting subjects on scores on the revised Betts' Questionnaire upon Mental Imagery) failed to meet the requirement out! ined above. However, these experiments did indicate that individual differences in imagery ability would be the most appropriate basis for manipulating imagery. Consequently, a new measure of such differences, the Visual Elaboration Scale, was constructed (Chapter 3). The final form of this scale was both internally consistent and capable of discriminating among subjects in a logical fashion. Its construct validity was established by the results of a picture memory experiment (Experiment Ill, Chapter 3). Part Ill of the thesis deals with the questions first of whether, and subsequently of how, visual imagery is perceptual. Chapter 4 reviews and discusses the relevant literature. Chapter 5 reports a study (Experiment IV) in which subjects varying on visual imagery ability, as measured by the Visual Elaboration Scale, were found to be affected differentially by the introduction of visual interference into a task requiring the mental representation of previously seen letters (after Brooks, 1968). The pattern of the results suggested that visual ima~ery makes a specific use of the apparatus of visual perception. Experiment V (Chapter 6) and Experiment VI (Chapter 7) report investigations of the implications of the use of the perceptual apparatus by visual imagery. In these studies strong differences were found between subjects classified as "non-imagers" and other subjects in the ability to recall distinctively visual information, and in performance on a perception-like task related to the availability of this type of informa-

Effect of different training methods on perceptual learning in impulsive children.

Abstract: The effectiveness of different training and transfer test conditions in promoting perceptual learning in impulsive kindergarten children was investigated. Interproblem variability was found to be more effective than intraproblem variability, and a differentiation training procedure was found to be more effective than a matching training procedure. The results provide guidelines for designing effective training methods for improving discrimination learning and problem solving in impulsive children.

The Effects of Search Practice and Perceptual Training upon Representational Drawing

Abstract: While growth in visual perception is an accepted goal of the field, most of the studies concerning the effects of perceptual training upon particular kinds of art activities are recent. Several investigators have reported positive effects of perceptual training strategies on subjects' modes of perception and/or two-dimensional drawing performances (Salome, 1965; Rennels, 1969; Salome and Reeves, 1972; Dorethy, 1973). In drawing, the individual has to develop efficiency in searching for critical cues in stimulus objects and similarities and differences in various kinds of visual information. These abilities appear to affect accuracy of recognition, identification, and delineation of visual objects and patterns. Neisser, Novick, and Lazar's (1963) investigation of the visual scanning procedure provided the basis for the assumption that the process of recognition is hierarchically organized. Before an individual decides that the letter Z, for example, is present in a list of items, he makes prior decisions about subordinate features such as parallel lines and angles. Neisser (1963, 1964) found that visual scanning practice enables subjects to develop unusual skill in searching for and differentiating multiple targets from background items. A list of 50 items arranged in a single spaced column was presented to subjects. Each-item was a string of letters which were scanned down from the top. Results indicated that, when searching for a target in a random context of a 50line list of letters or numbers, the time per item a person scanned tended to decrease rapidly and stabilized at about 19 lines per second after 14 days of practice. Practiced subjects were able to search for 10 targets at once as efficiently as for a single one. Neisser (1967) concluded that, with practice, subjects discover perceptual operations that seem to be minimally sufficient for the problem. For example, the subject need not identify the K as he would if he named it. He need only discover the minimal features such as curves, iagonals, or intersections which are not shared by the context letters. Gibson (1969) posited that the subjects of these experiments must be learning to narrow down the search to a minimal

Some Functions of Active Handling: Studies with Blinded Humans:

Abstract: A review of a five-year research into the characteristics of effective search strategies and the contribution made by exploratory scanning to accurate perception, involving comparisons of blind and...

Anxiety and Perceptual Articulation

Abstract: The study investigated Witkin's suggestion that low manifest anxiety is associated with relatively high perceptual articulation, whereas high anxiety is associated with relatively low perceptual articulation. Previous research typically has not provided adequate control for subjects' IQ; therefore, results may have been confounded by differences in subjects' ability. This study attempted to clarify the relationship between state and trait anxiety and perceptual articulation when IQ was controlled for 60 female subjects, who fell within a predetermined IQ range and were blocked into low, moderate and high A-Trait groups. Half of each group was assigned to either low or high ego-involving conditions. All subjects completed the Embedded-figures Test, Gestalt Completion and Concealed Words Tests. Contrary to Witkin, the study yielded no significant relationship between anxiety and perceptual articulation.

Facilitation of stereopsis from a large disparity random-dot stereogram by various monocular features: further findings (a short note).

Abstract: This experiment examined the effects of adding five different kinds of prominent monocular features to a large-disparity random-dot stereogram. It was found that features which enclosed the disparate area produced the shortest initial perception times for fusion. The longer initial perception times for stimuli containing features without this enclosing property are explained in terms of less-helpful guidance of saccadic eye movements prior to the establishment of fusion. Subsequent reductions in perception times for these latter stimuli could be due to perceptual learning within the eye movement control system.

Transfer of a Learned Relational Response in Monkeys and Children

Abstract: St6mmary.-Two experiments are reported, the first with 30 young test-wise rhesus monkeys and the second with 30 first grade children, on transfer of relational responding on a series of discrimination learning and transposition prob!erns which varied in degree of stimulus similarity across problems. In the first, monkeys showed superior transfer and transposition when problems contained common stimulus elements and when the stimuli were highly discriminable. Transfer across problems which did not contain common stimulus elements in the first two problems resulted in the most errors and did not yield significant proportions of transposers. In the second, the children also showed enhanced transfer and transposition to the highly discriminable dimensions but there were significant reductions in errors and significant proportions of transposers to all stimulus combinations on the second problem. Ninety percent of the children did not make any errors in either phase of the third and fourth problems. The results were interpreted in terms of the acquisition of abstract or nonspecific perceptual learning sets. In a previous experiment (Ackles, Zimmermam, Manning, & Kazarian, 1974) transposition performance of 2-yr.-old test-wise rhesus monkeys and first grade children was compared across stimulus dimensions (volume, brightness, and volume plus brightness), test stimuli position, order of transposition testing, and stimulus similarity. The results were consistent with previous findings reviewed by Reese (1968). The most salient stimulus dimension (volume plus brightness) enhanced transposition in both species; the less salient brightness and far-test conditions produced the most errors in both species. Phylogenetic differences in transposition performance were limited to complex interaction effects. Monkeys tested on the far test first made fewer errors on subsequent tests and the magnitude of the reduction was the greatest in the brightness condition. The children did not show any significant interaction effects. Although the experiment was not designed to test any particular theory of transposition and was not interpreted as resolving any of the traditional controversies, the data suggested that transposition might involve a primitive perceptual learningset mechanism. The interpretation Ackles, et al. ( 1974) offered was in terms of stimulus differentiation in perceptual learning (e.g., Gibson, 1969). The principal 'Portions of this article were presented by the first author at the meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, New York, April, 1975. The research with monkeys was supported by Grant M-4516 from the National Institutes of Health while the second author was at Cornell University. The research with the children and the analysis of the data from both studies were supported by a grant from the-Central Michigan University Creative Endeavors program.

Recognition memory for novel forms following continuous or intermittent tachistoscopic viewing

Abstract: Ten adult subjects viewed six novel visual forms presented tachistoscopically such that only one or several visual fixations on the target were possible. Recognition memory for the targets was significantly better when the subject was allowed several fixations, even though the targets were presented for the same total duration. The results were interpreted as supporting Hebb’s (1949) theory of perceptual learning.

Perceptual learning: its importance in dentistry.

Abstract: Perceptual skills are essential to the acquisition of motor skills in dentistry. The absence of these perceptual skills should be determined as early as possible and should be rectified by instruction. Programed instruction is one suitable method for teaching these skills. Perceptual discrimination will allow the learner to picture his goal or objective clearly, and it will increase his motivation by enabling him to reach this goal. Perceptual skills are necessary too for the learner to improve his performance by repetitive practice, see his mistakes, and institute corrective behavior.