Perceptual Learning: The Flexibility of the Senses

264 Pages·2019·7.026 MB·English

by  Kevin Connolly

PERCEPTUAL LEARNING

PERCEPTUAL LEARNING
The Flexibility of the Senses
Kevin Connolly
1
3
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.
© Oxford University Press 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction
rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
CIP data is on file at the Library of Congress
ISBN 978– 0– 19– 066289– 9
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by LSC Communications, United States of America
For Paul Liam, perceptual learner extraordinaire

CONTENTS
Preface xi
PART I
THE NATURE OF PERCEPTUAL LEARNING
1. How to Understand Perceptual Learning 3
1.1 Introduction 3
1.2 What Is Perceptual Learning? 7
1.3 A Taxonomy of Perceptual Learning Cases 18
1.4 The Offloading View of Perceptual Learning 28
1.5 Looking Ahead 36
2. Is Perceptual Learning Genuinely Perceptual? 38
2.1 Introduction 38
2.2 Skepticism about Perceptual Learning as
Genuinely Perceptual 41
2.3 Introspective Evidence That Perceptual
Learning Is Genuinely Perceptual 45
Contents
2.4 Neuroscientific Evidence That Perceptual
Learning Is Genuinely Perceptual 48
2.5 Behavioral Evidence That Perceptual Learning
Is Genuinely Perceptual 57
2.6 Conclusion 59
PART II
THE SCOPE OF PERCEPTUAL LEARNING
3. Learned Attention and the Contents of Perception 65
3.1 Introduction 65
3.2 The Phenomenal Contrast Argument 69
3.3 The Attentional Reply to the Phenomenal
Contrast Argument 72
3.4 The Blind Flailing Model of Perceptual Learning 76
3.5 A New Attentional Reply to the Phenomenal
Contrast Argument 88
3.6 Learned Attention and the Offloading View 99
4. Learned Attention II: Sensory Substitution 101
4.1 Introduction 101
4.2 Attentional Weighting in Distal Attribution 103
4.3 Latent Inhibition as a Kind of Learned Attention 109
4.4 Applying Principles of Attentional Training to
Sensory Substitution 116
4.5 Perceptual Learning and Perceptual Hacking 121
4.6 An Empirical Test for Determining the Nature
of SSD Experience 124
4.7 Conclusion 126
viii
Contents
5. “Chunking” the World through Multisensory
Perception 127
5.1 Introduction 127
5.2 The Kind of Conscious Awareness We Have in
Multisensory Perception 135
5.3 Unitization as a Perceptual Learning Mechanism 139
5.4 Applying Unitization to Multisensory Cases 142
5.5 Objections and Replies 147
5.6 Unitization and the Offloading View 151
5.7 Conclusion 153
6. Learning to Differentiate Properties: Speech
Perception 154
6.1 Introduction 154
6.2 The Phenomenal Contrast Argument for
Hearing Meanings 156
6.3 The Argument from Homophones 159
6.4 The Role of Differentiation in Speech Perception 164
6.5 Why Perceptual Learning Does Not Support
the View That We Hear Meanings 170
6.6 The Offloading View and Speech Perception 174
6.7 Conclusion 177
7. Learning to Differentiate Objects: The Case of
Memory Color 179
7.1 Introduction 179
7.2 Memory Color and Cognitive Penetration 181
7.3 A Brief Survey of Memory Color Studies 185
7.4 Why Memory Color Is Not a Mechanism for
Color Constancy 193
ix