USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications
Learned predictiveness speeds visual processing.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2012
Abstract
When humans learn that the presence of a cue predicts the likelihood of an outcome, they can exploit this learned predictiveness, such that formation of subsequent associations between that cue and new outcomes is facilitated. Could such enhanced selection for association arise early enough to facilitate low-level visual processing? In a test of this possibility, adult volunteers first engaged in a value-learning task involving faces that were differentially predictive of monetary wins or losses. Later, in a simple recognition task, these faces were briefly presented for a variable duration and then masked. The critical presentation duration needed to produce criterion-level recognition was measured to index the visual processing speed for each learned face. Critical duration was significantly shorter for stimuli with high learned predictiveness than for stimuli with low learned predictiveness, regardless of whether they were associated with wins or losses. These results show that neural mechanisms involved in predicting future outcomes are able to modulate visual processing efficiency, probably via cortical feedback processes.
Language
en_US
Publisher
Association for Psychological Science
Recommended Citation
O'Brien, J. L. & Raymond, J. E. (2012). Learned predictiveness speeds visual processing. Psychological Science, 23(4), 359-363. doi: 10.1177/0956797611429800
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
Abstract only. Full-text article is available only through licensed access provided by the publisher. Published in Psychological Science, 23(4), 359-363. doi: 10.1177/0956797611429800 Members of the USF System may access the full-text of the article through the authenticated link provided.