Role of attention and perceptual grouping in visual statistical learning. Baker, C. I, Olson, C. R, & Behrmann, M. Psychol Sci, 15(7):460–466, 2004.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
Statistical learning has been widely proposed as a mechanism by which observers learn to decompose complex sensory scenes. To determine how robust statistical learning is, we investigated the impact of attention and perceptual grouping on statistical learning of visual shapes. Observers were presented with stimuli containing two shapes that were either connected by a bar or unconnected. When observers were required to attend to both locations at which shapes were presented, the degree of statistical learning was unaffected by whether the shapes were connected or not. However, when observers were required to attend to just one of the shapes' locations, statistical learning was observed only when the shapes were connected. These results demonstrate that visual statistical learning is not just a passive process. It can be modulated by both attention and connectedness, and in natural scenes these factors may constrain the role of stimulus statistics in learning.
@Article{Baker2004,
  author      = {Chris I Baker and Carl R Olson and Marlene Behrmann},
  journal     = {Psychol Sci},
  title       = {Role of attention and perceptual grouping in visual statistical learning.},
  year        = {2004},
  number      = {7},
  pages       = {460--466},
  volume      = {15},
  abstract    = {Statistical learning has been widely proposed as a mechanism by which
	observers learn to decompose complex sensory scenes. To determine
	how robust statistical learning is, we investigated the impact of
	attention and perceptual grouping on statistical learning of visual
	shapes. Observers were presented with stimuli containing two shapes
	that were either connected by a bar or unconnected. When observers
	were required to attend to both locations at which shapes were presented,
	the degree of statistical learning was unaffected by whether the
	shapes were connected or not. However, when observers were required
	to attend to just one of the shapes' locations, statistical learning
	was observed only when the shapes were connected. These results demonstrate
	that visual statistical learning is not just a passive process. It
	can be modulated by both attention and connectedness, and in natural
	scenes these factors may constrain the role of stimulus statistics
	in learning.},
  doi         = {10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00702.x},
  institution = {Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Mellon Institute, USA. cibaker@mit.edu},
  keywords    = {Attention; Cues; Humans; Learning; Statistics as Topic; Visual Perception},
  language    = {eng},
  medline-pst = {ppublish},
  pmid        = {15200630},
  timestamp   = {2010.08.04},
}

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