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(2017). Visual Training Improves Perceptual Grouping Based Visual training improves perceptual grouping based on basic stimulus features Daniel D. Kurylo, Richard Waxman, Rachel Kidron & Steven M. Silverstein Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics ISSN 1943-3921 Atten Percept Psychophys DOI 10.3758/s13414-017-1368-8 1 23 Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be self- archived in electronic repositories. If you wish to self-archive your article, please use the accepted manuscript version for posting on your own website. You may further deposit the accepted manuscript version in any repository, provided it is only made publicly available 12 months after official publication or later and provided acknowledgement is given to the original source of publication and a link is inserted to the published article on Springer's website. The link must be accompanied by the following text: "The final publication is available at link.springer.com”. 1 23 Author's personal copy Atten Percept Psychophys DOI 10.3758/s13414-017-1368-8 Visual training improves perceptual grouping based on basic stimulus features Daniel D. Kurylo1 & Richard Waxman2 & Rachel Kidron2 & Steven M. Silverstein 3 # The Psychonomic Society, Inc. 2017 Abstract Training on visual tasks improves performance on training protocol emphasizing stimulus integration enhanced basic and higher order visual capacities. Such improvement perceptual grouping. Results suggest that neural mechanisms has been linked to changes in connectivity among mediating mediating grouping by common luminance and/or orientation neurons. We investigated whether training effects occur for contribute to those mediating grouping by color but do not perceptual grouping. It was hypothesized that repeated en- share resources for grouping by common motion. Results gagement of integration mechanisms would enhance grouping are consistent with theories of perceptual learning emphasiz- processes. Thirty-six participants underwent 15 sessions of ing plasticity in early visual processing regions. training on a visual discrimination task that required percep- tual grouping. Participants viewed 20 × 20 arrays of dots or Keywords Perceptual learning . Perceptual grouping . Gabor patches and indicated whether the array appeared Perceptual organization grouped as vertical or horizontal lines. Across trials stimuli became progressively disorganized, contingent upon success- ful discrimination. Four visual dimensions were examined, in Perceptual learning is described as improved perceptual ca- which grouping was based on similarity in luminance, color, pacities resulting from repeated engagement in specific tasks orientation, and motion. Psychophysical thresholds of group- (for review, see Watanabe & Sasaki, 2015). Effects of percep- ing were assessed before and after training. Results indicate tual learning persist beyond transient changes to perception that performance in all four dimensions improved with train- produced by priming and are thought to represent long-term ing. Training on a control condition, which paralleled the dis- modifications to neural processing. In the visual domain, per- crimination task but without a grouping component, produced ceptual learning has been reported for basic capacities, includ- no improvement. In addition, training on only the luminance ing motion speed and direction (Saffell & Matthews, 2003), and orientation dimensions improved performance for those contrast sensitivity (Sowden, Rose, & Davies, 2002), Vernier conditions as well as for grouping by color, on which training acuity (Skrandies, Jedynak, & Fahle, 2001; Skrandies, Lang, had not occurred. However, improvement from partial training & Jedynak, 1996), perception of stereoscopic stimuli did not generalize to motion. Results demonstrate that a (Skrandies & Jedynak, 1999), orientation (Song et al., 2007), and higher order functions, including object (Furmanski & Engel, 2000) and face recognition (Gold, * Daniel D. Kurylo Bennett, & Sekular, 1999). [email protected] Perceptual learning reflects changes to processes associated with stimulus properties and task demands. At a cellular level, 1 Psychology Department, Brooklyn College CUNY, 2900 Bedford perceptual learning reflects plasticity in neural response char- Avenue Brooklyn, New York, NY 11210, USA acteristics, including increased contrast sensitivity (Hua et al., 2 Graduate School of Psychology, Touro College, New 2010) and sharpening of tuning curves (A. Schoups, Vogels, York, NY 10010, USA Qian, & Orban, 2001). Changes also occur among connec- 3 Division of Schizophrenia Research, Rutgers University Behavioral tions linking stimulus components (Crist, Li, & Gilbert, Health Care, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA 2001). Perceptual learning thereby improves efficiency in Author's personal copy Atten Percept Psychophys encoding and processing, which enhances response to stimuli For tasks involving perceptual integration, previous studies (Chen et al., 2015;Li,Piech,&Gilbert,2008). suggest that plasticity occurs by means of interactions among The level of processing at which plasticity occurs varies stimulus components, and not with encoding of the compo- with experimental conditions (Fahle, 2005). For some condi- nents. Specifically, training improves contrast detection of tions, perceptual learning is highly specific to the stimulus Gabor targets in the presence of collinear flankers, compared parameters under which training occurred, including spatial to orthogonal flankers (Adini, Sagi, & Tsodyks, 2002; position (Crist, Kapadia, Westheimer, & Gilbert, 1997; Dill Maniglia et al., 2011; Yeotikar et al., 2013). In this case, learn- & Fahle, 1997; A. A. Schoups, Vogels, & Orban, 1995), ori- ing effects that occur among collinear elements suggest en- entation (Crist et al., 1997; A. A. Schoups et al., 1995), orien- hanced interactions of neurons with shared orientation prefer- tation of Vernier stimuli (Shoji & Skrandies, 2006;Skrandies ence at an early level of processing. Context-dependent learn- et al., 2001), and spatial frequency (Sowden et al., 2002). Such ing effects are also found for texture segmentation of oriented specificity suggests plasticity within neurons at early levels line textures, suggesting that training enhances binding among within the visual processing hierarchy. With other conditions, grouped stimulus components by strengthening neural con- perceptual learning generalizes beyond stimuli used during nections (Casco, Campana, Grieco, & Fuggetta, 2004). training (Z. Liu, 1999; Zhang, Xiao, Klein, Levi, & Yu, Perceptual learning also occurs with contour integration, 2010), suggesting more widespread effects across neural sys- where perceptual learning increased separation limits among tems (Chen, Cai, Zhou, Thompson, & Fang, 2016). contour elements (Kovacs, Kozma, Feher, & Benedek, 1999; Neural models of perceptual learning emphasize interac- Li & Gilbert, 2002). Increasing the extent of local interactions tions across levels of processing, particularly involving feed- may reflect strengthening intermediate or long-range connec- back from later stages that facilitate stimulus processing at tions. In each case of perceptual integration, performance early levels (Chen et al., 2015). The site of plasticity has been change resulting from training appears to target interactions proposed to vary with task difficulty (reversed hierarchy the- among stimulus components. ory), where less difficult tasks produce changes to high-order Previous studies with nongrouping tasks have not specifi- processing, while increased difficulty shifts plasticity to low- cally examined perceptual learning related to integration level processing specific to stimulus properties (Ahissar & mechanisms. A new approach is presented here that measures Hochstein, 2004). the perceived global coherence of stimulus patterns. Less is known about perceptual learning at the level of Participants underwent a training protocol in which patterns perceptual grouping. Unlike forms of perceptual learning re- progressively increased in their level of ambiguity. Results ported for basic visual capacities, which characterize change expand analysis of perceptual learning to perceived integra- in response properties of neurons, grouping entails interac- tion among stimulus components. It was hypothesized here tions among neurons, either by means of coordinated activity that training on a grouping task would improve ability to per- or by strengthening connections. Perceptual learning associat- ceptually group spatially isolated stimulus elements. To test ed with grouping occurs at a subsequent stage of processing this, assessments of grouping ability were made before and and is thereby distinct from initial encoding of stimulus prop- after a training protocol. The effects of training on grouping erties. Perceptual grouping follows stimulus encoding and were compared to a control condition in which training did not precedes high-order visual functions, such as object recogni- contain a grouping component. Training effects were exam- tion and scene categorization. It has been shown that past ined for grouping that was based upon four stimulus features: experience, in terms of familiarity with stimuli, contributes luminance, color, orientation, or motion. Each of these fea- to image segmentation (Vecara & Farah, 1997) as well as tures represents a basic domain of visual processing (Van grouping disconnected line segments (Kimchi & Hadad,
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