Perceptual learning effect on decision and confidence thresholds

Practice can enhance of perceptual sensitivity, a well-known phenomenon called perceptual learning. However, the effect of practice on subjective perception has received little attention. We approach this problem from a visual psychophysics and computational modeling perspective. In a sequence of vi...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Solovey, Guillermo, Shalóm, Diego Edgar, Pérez Schuster, Verónica, Sigman, Mariano
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2016
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/38704
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/38704
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Confidence
Perceptual Learning
Signal Detection Theory
Subjective Awareness
Visual Psychophysics
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/3.1
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/3
Descripción
Sumario:Practice can enhance of perceptual sensitivity, a well-known phenomenon called perceptual learning. However, the effect of practice on subjective perception has received little attention. We approach this problem from a visual psychophysics and computational modeling perspective. In a sequence of visual search experiments, subjects significantly increased the ability to detect a “trained target”. Before and after training, subjects performed two psychophysical protocols that parametrically vary the visibility of the “trained target”: an attentional blink and a visual masking task. We found that confidence increased after learning only in the attentional blink task. Despite large differences in some observables and task settings, we identify common mechanisms for decision-making and confidence. Specifically, our behavioral results and computational model suggest that perceptual ability is independent of processing time, indicating that changes in early cortical representations are effective, and learning changes decision criteria to convey choice and confidence.