title: Perceptual learning effect on decision and confidence thresholds.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Neurociencia Integrativa, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Instituto de Cálculo, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina; CONICET, Argentina. Electronic address: gsolovey@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Guillermo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Solovey
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Neurociencia Integrativa, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Departamento de Física-IFIBA, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina; CONICET, Argentina.
authors.forename: Diego
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shalom
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Neurociencia Integrativa, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Departamento de Física-IFIBA, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Laboratorio de Neurobiología de la Memoria, Departamento Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular, FCEyN, UBA and IFIBYNE-CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina.; CONICET, Argentina.
authors.forename: Verónica
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pérez-Schuster
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio de Neurociencia Integrativa, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Laboratorio de Neurociencia, Universidad Torcuato di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Departamento de Física-IFIBA, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina; CONICET, Argentina.
authors.forename: Mariano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sigman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D054518:Attentional Blink / Q000502:physiology; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Confidence; Perceptual learning; Signal detection theory; Subjective awareness; Visual psychophysics