Benefits of fading in perceptual learning are driven by more than dimensional attention.

ABSTRACT: Individuals learn to classify percepts effectively when the task is initially easy and then gradually increases in difficulty. Some suggest that this is because easy-to-discriminate events help learners focus attention on discrimination-relevant dimensions. Here, we tested whether such attentional-spotlighting accounts are sufficient to explain easy-to-hard effects in auditory perceptual learning. In two experiments, participants were trained to discriminate periodic, frequency-modulated (FM) tones in two separate frequency ranges (300-600 Hz or 3000-6000 Hz). In one frequency range, sounds gradually increased in similarity as training progressed. In the other, stimulus similarity was constant throughout training. After training, participants showed better performance in their progressivel

SUBMITTER: Wisniewski MG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5516993 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature