Perceptual learning in auditory temporal discrimination: no evidence for a cross-modal transfer to the visual modality.

Perceptual learning was used to study potential transfer effects in a duration discrimination task. Subjects were trained to discriminate between two empty temporal intervals marked with auditory beeps, using a two-alternative forced choice paradigm. The major goal was to examine whether perceptual learning would generalize to empty intervals that have the same duration but are marked by visual flashes. The experiment also included longer intervals marked with auditory beeps and filled auditory intervals of the same duration as the trained interval, in order to examine whether perceptual learning would generalize to these conditions within the same sensory modality. In contrast to previous findings showing a transfer from the haptic to the auditory modality, the present results do not indicate a transfer from the auditory to the visual modality; but they do show transfers within the auditory modality.