title: Perceptual learning and roving: Stimulus types and overlapping neural populations.
abstract: In perceptual learning, performance usually improves when observers train with one type of stimulus, for example, a bisection stimulus. Roving denotes the situation when, instead of one, two or more types of stimuli are presented randomly interleaved, for example, a bisection stimulus and a vernier. For some combinations of stimulus types, performance improves in roving situations whereas for others it does not. To investigate when roving impedes perceptual learning, we conducted four experiments. Performance improved, for example, when we roved a bisection stimulus and a vernier but not when we roved certain types of bisection stimuli. We propose that roving hinders perceptual learning when the stimulus types are clearly distinct from each other but still excite overlapping but not identical neural populations.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Psychophysics, Brain Mind Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Station 19, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. elisa.tartaglia@epfl.ch
authors.forename: Elisa M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Tartaglia
authors.forename: Kristoffer C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Aberg
authors.forename: Michael H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Herzog
mesh_terms: D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D009949:Orientation; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011601:Psychophysics; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult