Auditory learning: Uncorking performance bottlenecks
Abstract
Internal noise is ubiquitous to information processing systems in the brain. It can originate in low-level, sensory systems (e.g., stochastic neural firing) or high-level cognitive functions (e.g., fluctuations in attention). Added to inefficiencies associated with the decision making process, it compromises our ability to make perceptual judgements even under ideal conditions (i.e., in the absence of external noise). We present evidence herein that performance-limiting internal noise and inefficiency of various origins can be reduced through training, resulting in improved behavioural performance. We promote the view that reducing or even removing these limiting processes is what defines perceptual learning, and that transfer of learning to untrained tasks critically depends on those tasks having a limiting process in common with the trained task. We present implications of this view for our understanding of perceptual learning during development and in atypical populations, as well as to the more practical aspects of designing perceptual and cognitive training programmes that will demonstrate benefits beyond the training tasks themselves.
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