Bustos Camila, Montefusco-Siegmund Rodrigo, Peña Fernando, Aylwin María de la Luz
Laboratorio de Neurofisiología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Talca, Talca, Chile.
Human Cognitive Neurophysiology and Behavior Lab, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile.
PLoS One. 2025 Aug 18;20(8):e0330284. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0330284. eCollection 2025.
Wide experience with complex visual stimuli results in better performance and faster responses in object discrimination, categorization, and identification through perceptual learning and expertise. Visual experts exhibit an earlier onset of the availability of stimulus information for encoding and a reduction of the encoding duration required for discrimination and individuation. However, it is still unresolved whether perceptual learning and expertise shapes the speed of perceptual processing in the first milliseconds after stimulus onset. Twenty seven participants developed perceptual learning and expertise through discrimination of pairs of Kanji stimuli across six sessions. Discrimination sensitivity was evaluated at four training levels with encoding durations between 17 and 1000 ms. Behavioral results show a gradual increase in sensitivity and a reduction in encoding duration required for a given performance with discrimination training. A shifted exponential function fitted to the sensitivity data revealed that training leads to a faster rate of performance change with encoding durations, suggesting increases in the speed of information extraction, as well as an earlier availability of stimulus information for encoding, suggesting an earlier onset of information extraction. Interestingly, the increase in the rate of performance paralleled that of sensitivity with training, suggesting an association with perceptual learning and expertise. Besides, the earlier availability of stimulus information is achieved after two training sessions, likely reflecting the acquisition of stimuli familiarity. The faster speed of information extraction and the earlier stimulus information extraction for encoding, likely contribute to faster responses and higher performance, typical of perceptual experts in object discrimination and individuation. These findings provide additional evidence for the outcome of discrimination training on stimulus processing in the first milliseconds after stimulus onset.
对复杂视觉刺激的广泛经验，通过知觉学习和专业技能，在物体辨别、分类和识别方面能带来更好的表现和更快的反应。视觉专家在编码时刺激信息的可用性出现得更早，并且在辨别和个体化所需的编码持续时间上有所减少。然而，在刺激开始后的最初几毫秒内，知觉学习和专业技能是否会影响知觉处理的速度，这一点仍未得到解决。27名参与者通过在六个阶段对成对的汉字刺激进行辨别，发展出了知觉学习和专业技能。在四个训练水平上评估辨别敏感性，编码持续时间在17毫秒至1000毫秒之间。行为结果表明，随着辨别训练的进行，敏感性逐渐增加，在给定表现下所需的编码持续时间减少。拟合到敏感性数据的移位指数函数表明，训练导致随着编码持续时间表现变化的速度更快，这表明信息提取速度增加，以及刺激信息用于编码的可用性更早，这表明信息提取开始得更早。有趣的是，表现速度的增加与训练中敏感性的增加并行，这表明与知觉学习和专业技能有关。此外，经过两次训练后，刺激信息的可用性更早实现，这可能反映了对刺激熟悉度的获得。信息提取速度更快以及用于编码的刺激信息提取更早，可能有助于更快的反应和更高的表现，这是物体辨别和个体化方面知觉专家的典型特征。这些发现为刺激开始后最初几毫秒内辨别训练对刺激处理的结果提供了额外的证据。
