Mechanisms of perceptual learning

Aaron Seitz

Vision Sciences Lab, Boston University

We are constantly learning new things as we go about our lives. In addition to learning new facts, procedures and concepts, we are also refining our sensory abilities. How and when these sensory modifications take place is the focus of intense study and debate. In this talk I will present recent findings from two lines of perceptual learning research. 

I will first discuss recent advances in the processes of task-irrelevant perceptual learning (TIPL). While sensory improvements were thought only to occur when attention is focused on the stimuli to be learned (task-relevant learning), recent studies demonstrate performance improvements independent of the focus of attention (i.e. TIPL). In this talk, I will discuss research showing that TIPL can occur through stimulus-reward pairings in the absence of a behavior task or awareness to the learned stimuli.  I will also present research showing that physiological correlates of this learning can be found in Macaque V4. 

In the other part of my talk, I will present research showing that training with a multisensory audio-visual stimulus produces enhanced visual perceptual learning both within a session and across days. This multisensory facilitatory effect depends upon the featural relations between the auditory and visual stimuli,  suggesting that the benefits of multisensory training may result from low-level crossmodal interactions.  In addition to behavioral results, I will discuss fMRI results elucidating the neural circuitry underlying this learning facilitation.