Dataset Information

Can reading-specific training stimuli improve the effect of perceptual learning on peripheral reading speed?

ABSTRACT: In a previous study, Chung, Legge, and Cheung (2004) showed that training using repeated presentation of trigrams (sequences of three random letters) resulted in an increase in the size of the visual span (number of letters recognized in a glance) and reading speed in the normal periphery. In this study, we asked whether we could optimize the benefit of trigram training on reading speed by using trigrams more specific to the reading task (i.e., trigrams frequently used in the English language) and presenting them according to their frequencies of occurrence in normal English usage and observers' performance. Averaged across seven observers, our training paradigm (4 days of training) increased the size of the visual span by 6.44 bits, with an accompanied 63.6% increase in the maximum reading speed, compared with the values before training. However, these benefits were not statistically different from those of Chung, Legge, and Cheung (2004) using a random-trigram training paradigm. Our findings confirm the possibility of increasing the size of the visual span and reading speed in the normal periphery with perceptual learning, and suggest that the benefits of training on letter recognition and maximum reading speed may not be linked to the types of letter strings presented during training.

SUBMITTER: Bernard JB

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3412893 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Can reading-specific training stimuli improve the effect of perceptual learning on peripheral reading speed?

Bernard Jean-Baptiste JB Arunkumar Amit A Chung Susana T L ST

Vision research 20120628

In a previous study, Chung, Legge, and Cheung (2004) showed that training using repeated presentation of trigrams (sequences of three random letters) resulted in an increase in the size of the visual span (number of letters recognized in a glance) and reading speed in the normal periphery. In this study, we asked whether we could optimize the benefit of trigram training on reading speed by using trigrams more specific to the reading task (i.e., trigrams frequently used in the English language) a ...[more]

PMID: 22750053

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Project description:The visual system exploits past experience at multiple timescales to resolve perceptual ambiguity in the retinal image. For example, perception of a bistable stimulus can be biased toward one interpretation over another when preceded by a brief presentation of a disambiguated version of the stimulus (positive priming) or through intermittent presentations of the ambiguous stimulus (stabilization). Similarly, prior presentations of unambiguous stimuli can be used to explicitly "train" a long-lasting association between a percept and a retinal location (perceptual association). These phenonema have typically been regarded as independent processes, with short-term biases attributed to perceptual memory and longer-term biases described as associative learning. Here we tested for interactions between these two forms of experience-dependent perceptual bias and demonstrate that short-term processes strongly influence long-term outcomes. We first demonstrate that the establishment of long-term perceptual contingencies does not require explicit training by unambiguous stimuli, but can arise spontaneously during the periodic presentation of brief, ambiguous stimuli. Using rotating Necker cube stimuli, we observed enduring, retinotopically specific perceptual biases that were expressed from the outset and remained stable for up to 40 min, consistent with the known phenomenon of perceptual stabilization. Further, bias was undiminished after a break period of 5 min, but was readily reset by interposed periods of continuous, as opposed to periodic, ambiguous presentation. Taken together, the results demonstrate that perceptual biases can arise naturally and may principally reflect the brain's tendency to favor recent perceptual interpretation at a given retinal location. Further, they suggest that an association between retinal location and perceptual state, rather than a physical stimulus, is sufficient to generate long-term biases in perceptual organization.

Dataset Information

Can reading-specific training stimuli improve the effect of perceptual learning on peripheral reading speed?

Publications

Can reading-specific training stimuli improve the effect of perceptual learning on peripheral reading speed?

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