Psychology of Perceptual Learning

Perceptual Learning on Simple Tasks

• Vernier discrimination improves with practice, as shown by McKee and Westheimer (1978), where the goal is to detect the smallest offset between two bars.
• Orientation discrimination also improves with practice, as demonstrated by Vogels and Orban (1985).
• Stereoscopic depth discrimination improves with practice, as shown by Ramachandran and Braddick (1973), where the goal is to determine the location of a disc in relation to a background.

Perceptual Learning on Complex Tasks

• Increasing complexity in stimuli leads to more perceptual learning, as shown by Fine and Jacobs (2002).
• Tasks using stimuli with external noise show more learning than low-level tasks.
• Complex tasks that require discriminations along multiple perceptual dimensions show more learning.
• Examples of complex tasks include face discrimination, which involves multiple dimensions such as shape, contrast, and more.

Amount of Learning and Initial Performance Levels

• The amount of learning is inversely related to initial performance levels, as shown by Fahle and Henke-Fahle (1996).
• Poorer initial performance on a Vernier discrimination task leads to more learning on the task.
• The change in threshold is higher if you start at a poorer performance level.

Factors Limiting Learning

• Astle et al. (2012) tested whether the same factors that limit performance on a task also limit learning on the same task.
• They manipulated Vernier discrimination performance by equating thresholds across individuals and conditions, and tested at different eccentricities.
• The results showed that the same factors that limit performance also limit learning.

This quiz covers the improvement of performance on simple perceptual tasks with practice, including Vernier discrimination and orientation discrimination. It explores the learning process and discrimination threshold in perceptual tasks.