TY - JOUR
T1 - Learning pop-out detection
T2 - Specificities to stimulus characteristics
AU - Ahissar, Merav
AU - Hochstein, Shaul
PY - 1996/11
Y1 - 1996/11
N2 - Training induces dramatic improvement in the performance of pop-out detection. In this study, we examined the specificities of this improvement to stimulus characteristics. We found that learning is specific within basic visual dimensions: orientation, size and position. Accordingly, following training with one set of orientations, rotating target and distracters by 30 deg or more substantially hampers performance. Furthermore, rotation of either target or distracters alone greatly increases threshold. Learning is not transferred to reduced-size stimuli. Position specificity near fixation may be finer than 0.7 deg. On the other hand, learning transfers to the untrained eye, to expanded images, to mirror image transformations and to homologous positions across the midline (near fixation). Thus, learning must occur at a processing level which is early enough to maintain fine separability along basic stimulus dimensions, yet sufficiently high to manifest the described generalizations. We suggest that the site of early perceptual learning is one of the cortical areas which receive input from primary visual cortex, V1, and where top-down attentional control is present.
AB - Training induces dramatic improvement in the performance of pop-out detection. In this study, we examined the specificities of this improvement to stimulus characteristics. We found that learning is specific within basic visual dimensions: orientation, size and position. Accordingly, following training with one set of orientations, rotating target and distracters by 30 deg or more substantially hampers performance. Furthermore, rotation of either target or distracters alone greatly increases threshold. Learning is not transferred to reduced-size stimuli. Position specificity near fixation may be finer than 0.7 deg. On the other hand, learning transfers to the untrained eye, to expanded images, to mirror image transformations and to homologous positions across the midline (near fixation). Thus, learning must occur at a processing level which is early enough to maintain fine separability along basic stimulus dimensions, yet sufficiently high to manifest the described generalizations. We suggest that the site of early perceptual learning is one of the cortical areas which receive input from primary visual cortex, V1, and where top-down attentional control is present.
KW - Detection
KW - Learning
KW - Orientation
KW - Plasticity
KW - Specificity
KW - Transfer
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0030297878&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/0042-6989(96)00036-3
DO - 10.1016/0042-6989(96)00036-3
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C2 - 8977015
AN - SCOPUS:0030297878
SN - 0042-6989
VL - 36
SP - 3487
EP - 3500
JO - Vision Research
JF - Vision Research
IS - 21
ER -