Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:

Early and rapid perceptual learning

Abstract

Major, rapid performance improvements in perceptual training are often dismissed as 'task' or 'procedural' learning because they are fast and generalize within a task. We assessed the contributions of perceptual and procedural learning to improvement in an auditory tone frequency learning task in humans and found that perceptual learning accounted for between 76% and 98% of the rapid early performance improvement.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Improvement in frequency discrimination in four groups (n = 20 in each group) with differing prior training.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Goldstone, R.L. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 49, 585–612 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Buonomano, D.V. & Merzenich, M.M. Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 21, 149–186 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Recanzone, G.H., Schreiner, C.E. & Merzenich, M.M. J. Neurosci. 13, 87–103 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Kujala, T. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98, 10509–10514 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Tallal, P. et al. Science 271, 81–84 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Wright, B.A. & Fitzgerald, M.B. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98, 12307–12312 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Demany, L. & Semal, C. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 111, 1377–1388 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Delhommeau, K., Micheyl, C., Jouvent, R. & Collet, L. Percept. Psychophys. 64, 426–436 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Irvine, D.R.F., Martin, R.L., Klimkeit, E. & Smith, R. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 108, 2964–2968 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Robinson, K. & Summerfield, A.Q. Ear. Hear. 17, 51S–65S (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Demany, L. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 78, 1118–1120 (1985).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Leek, M.R. & Watson, C.S. Percept. Psychophys. 43, 389–394 (1988).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Gottselig, J.M., Brandeis, D., Hofer-Tinguely, G., Borbely, A.A. & Achermann, P. Learn. Mem. 11, 162–171 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Karni, A. & Sagi, D. Nature 365, 250–252 (1993).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Poggio, T., Fahle, M. & Edelman, S. Science 256, 1018–10121 (1992).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank S. Cirstea for assistance with statistical analysis. This research was entirely supported by the Medical Research Council (UK).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sygal Amitay.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

D.J.C. Hawkey and S.A. declare that they have no competing financial interests. D.R.M. is the founder and a shareholder of MindWeavers Ltd., a company developing and selling computer-game training products.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

Frequency-discrimination sensitivity for two additional groups of normally hearing adult listeners with and without prior procedural training. The “Frequency” Group (n = 11) performed 6 blocks of 200 trials on a 2I-2AFC frequency discrimination task (same as Group 1, except that two rather than five interleaved tracks of 100 trials were used). The “Intensity” Group (n = 12) performed two blocks (400 trials) of 2I-2AFC intensity discrimination (same as Group 3, but with two interleaved tracks per block; data not shown), followed by four blocks (200 trials each) of frequency discrimination. The dotted line shows the data from the “Intensity” Group transposed to indicate the block number on the frequency-discrimination task. The “Intensity” Group showed no advantage in frequency discrimination for having performed a different perceptual judgment using the same procedure. (GIF 8 kb)

Supplementary Note

Quantifying procedural and perceptual components of learning. (PDF 41 kb)

Supplementary Methods (PDF 31 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hawkey, D., Amitay, S. & Moore, D. Early and rapid perceptual learning. Nat Neurosci 7, 1055–1056 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1315

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1315

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing