CHAPTER 78 Mechanisms of Perceptual Learning

Perceptual learning—improvement in the perform-ance of a perceptual task as a function of practice or training—is a widely observed phenomenon that may have important practical and theoretical consequences. Perceptual learning may reflect plasticity in different levels of perceptual analysis, including changes in early visual, auditory, or somatic cortices, as well as higher-order changes in the weighting of information in task performance. Perceptual learning, as distinct from cognitive learning or strategy selection, often exhibits significant specificity to the trained stimuli or tasks, and is assessed by transfer (or, conversely, gen-eralization) tests. At a behavioral level, the effects of perceptual learning on an observer’s performance ar