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Publication
Visual statistical learning requires attention
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
ABSTRACT: Statistical learning is a person’s ability to automatically learn environmental regularities through passive exposure. Since the
earliest studies of statistical learning in infants, it has been debated exactly how “passive” this learning can be (i.e., whether
attention is needed for learning to occur). In Experiment 1 of the current study, participants performed a serial feature search
task where they searched for a target shape among heterogenous nontarget shapes. Unbeknownst to the participants, one of
these nontarget shapes was presented much more often in location. Even though the regularity concerned a nonsalient, nontarget
item that did not receive any attentional priority during search, participants still learned its regularity (responding faster
when it was presented at this high-probability location). While this may suggest that not much, if any, attention is needed for
learning to occur, follow-up experiments showed that if an attentional strategy (i.e., color subset search or exogenous cueing)
effectively prevents attention from being directed to this critical regularity, incidental learning is no longer observed. We
conclude that some degree of attention to a regularity is needed for visual statistical learning to occur.
Description
Keywords
Statistical learning Attention Visual search Distractor suppression Feature guided search
Citation
Duncan, D. H., van Moorselaar, D., & Theeuwes, J. (2024). Visual statistical learning requires attention. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-024-02605-1
Publisher
Springer