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Perceptual learning without perception

Nature volume 413, pages 844–848 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

The brain is able to adapt rapidly and continually to the surrounding environment, becoming increasingly sensitive to important and frequently encountered stimuli1,2,3,4. It is often claimed that this adaptive learning is highly task-specific, that is, we become more sensitive to the critical signals in the tasks we attend to5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15. Here, we show a new type of perceptual learning, which occurs without attention, without awareness and without any task relevance. Subjects were repeatedly presented with a background motion signal so weak that its direction was not visible; the invisible motion was an irrelevant background to the central task that engaged the subject's attention. Despite being below the threshold of visibility and being irrelevant to the central task, the repetitive exposure improved performance specifically for the direction of the exposed motion when tested in a subsequent suprathreshold test. These results suggest that a frequently presented feature sensitizes the visual system merely owing to its frequency, not its relevance or salience.

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Figure 1: General procedure and exposure stage.
Figure 2: Test stages in experiment 1.
Figure 3: Test stages in experiment 2.
Figure 4: Test stages in experiment 3.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Ahissar, P. Cavanagh, S. Hochstein, W. T. Newsome, R. Raizada and R. Sekuler for their comments on this or related study. This work was supported by an NSF (SBES, HCP) grant to T.W. and by Chiba University and JSPS fellowship to Y.S.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Boston University, 64 Cummington Street, Boston, 02215, Massachusetts, USA

    Takeo Watanabe

  2. Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Arizona State University West, Phoenix, 85069-7100, Arizona, USA

    José E. Náñez

  3. NMR Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, 02129, Massachusetts, USA

    Yuka Sasaki

Authors
  1. Takeo Watanabe
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  2. José E. Náñez
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  3. Yuka Sasaki
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Correspondence to Takeo Watanabe.

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Watanabe, T., Náñez, J. & Sasaki, Y. Perceptual learning without perception. Nature 413, 844–848 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35101601

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