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Rewards Evoke Learning of Unconsciously Processed Visual Stimuli in Adult Humans
Open accessAbstract
The study of human learning is complicated by the myriad of processing elements involved in conducting any behavioral task. In the case of visual perceptual learning, there has been significant controversy regarding the task processes that guide the formation of this learning. However, there is a developing consensus that top-down, task-related factors are required for such learning to take place. Here we challenge this idea by use of a novel procedure in which human participants, who were deprived of food and water, passively viewed visual stimuli while receiving occasional drops of water as rewards. Visual orientation stimuli, which were temporally paired with the liquid rewards, were viewed monocularly and rendered imperceptible by continuously flashing contour-rich patterns to the other eye. Results show that visual learning can be formed in human adults through stimulus-reward pairing in the absence of a task and without awareness of the stimulus presentation or reward contingencies.
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“For example, even if an image is fully suppressed for the entire duration of the experiment, humans can unconsciously learn about its features (Seitz et al., 2009).”
From Hard criteria for empirical theories of consciousness (2021) · cites this paper as Seitz et al., 2009
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
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“Studies that manipulated the state of individuals to observe reward effects (e.g., by depriving them of water: Seitz et al., 2009; or food: Cunningham & Egeth, 2016) suggest that state-dependent fluctuations within a single individual may also affect the expression of reward-based selection history bias.”
From Selection history: How reward modulates selectivity of visual attention. (2018) · cites this paper as Seitz et al., 2009
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“This notion is in line with findings showing that incentives ultimately benefit attentional processing (Kiss et al., 2009; Sawaki et al., 2015) as well as enhance the perceptual representation of reward-associated targets (Seitz, Kim & Watanabe, 2009; Serences, 2008).”
From Selection history: How reward modulates selectivity of visual attention. (2018) · cites this paper as Seitz et al., 2009
In the citing paper
“There is a precedent for such unconscious reward-based learning in the perceptual learning literature, and the reward can be internal – it does not need to be explicitly provided by the experimenter (Seitz et al., 2009).”
From Rethinking motor learning and savings in adaptation paradigms: model-free memory for successful actions combines with internal models (2011) · cites this paper as Seitz et al., 2009
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Metadata
- Authors
- Seitz, A. R., Kim, D., & Watanabe, T.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Riverside (US)
- Boston University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Seitz, Aaron R.
- Venue
- Neuron
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2009-03
- Volume
- 61
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 700-707
- ISSN
- 0896-6273 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2683263
- OpenAlex
- W2040382032
- Cited by
- 337
- References
- 57
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 37 · 2013: 29 · 2012: 23
- FWCI
- 11.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Neuron (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Eye Institute (R01EY015980, R21EY017737)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Multisensory perception and integration
- Keywords
- visual perceptual learning, reward, unconscious processes, top-down processing, monocular viewing, stimulus awareness, food deprivation, water reward, visual orientation
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Female, Humans, Learning, Male, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Photic Stimulation, Psychophysics, Reward, Unconscious, Psychology, Young Adult
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