Bayesian learning of visual chunks by human observers. Orbán, G., Fiser, J., Aslin, R. N, & Lengyel, M. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 105(7):2745–2750, 2008.
doi  abstract   bibtex   
Efficient and versatile processing of any hierarchically structured information requires a learning mechanism that combines lower-level features into higher-level chunks. We investigated this chunking mechanism in humans with a visual pattern-learning paradigm. We developed an ideal learner based on Bayesian model comparison that extracts and stores only those chunks of information that are minimally sufficient to encode a set of visual scenes. Our ideal Bayesian chunk learner not only reproduced the results of a large set of previous empirical findings in the domain of human pattern learning but also made a key prediction that we confirmed experimentally. In accordance with Bayesian learning but contrary to associative learning, human performance was well above chance when pair-wise statistics in the exemplars contained no relevant information. Thus, humans extract chunks from complex visual patterns by generating accurate yet economical representations and not by encoding the full correlational structure of the input.
@Article{Orban2008,
  author      = {Gergo Orb\'an and J\'ozsef Fiser and Richard N Aslin and M\'at\'e Lengyel},
  journal     = {Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A},
  title       = {Bayesian learning of visual chunks by human observers.},
  year        = {2008},
  number      = {7},
  pages       = {2745--2750},
  volume      = {105},
  abstract    = {Efficient and versatile processing of any hierarchically structured
	information requires a learning mechanism that combines lower-level
	features into higher-level chunks. We investigated this chunking
	mechanism in humans with a visual pattern-learning paradigm. We developed
	an ideal learner based on Bayesian model comparison that extracts
	and stores only those chunks of information that are minimally sufficient
	to encode a set of visual scenes. Our ideal Bayesian chunk learner
	not only reproduced the results of a large set of previous empirical
	findings in the domain of human pattern learning but also made a
	key prediction that we confirmed experimentally. In accordance with
	Bayesian learning but contrary to associative learning, human performance
	was well above chance when pair-wise statistics in the exemplars
	contained no relevant information. Thus, humans extract chunks from
	complex visual patterns by generating accurate yet economical representations
	and not by encoding the full correlational structure of the input.},
  doi         = {10.1073/pnas.0708424105},
  institution = {Collegium Budapest Institute for Advanced Study, 2 Szenth\'aroms\'ag utca, Budapest H-1014, Hungary.},
  keywords    = {Bayes Theorem; Humans; Learning, physiology; Vision, Ocular, physiology},
  language    = {eng},
  medline-pst = {ppublish},
  pmid        = {18268353},
  timestamp   = {2011.05.10},
}

Downloads: 0