Abstract
The brain is able to adapt rapidly and continually to the surrounding
environment, becoming increasingly sensitive to important and frequently
encountered stimuli. 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 to. 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.
- adult,attention,attention:
- perception,motion
- perception:
- physiology,brain,brain:
- physiology,humans,learning,learning:
- physiology,models,motion
- physiology,neurological,sensory
- thresholds,perception,vision
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