Perceptual Learning

Kevin Connolly is a cognitive scientist and philosopher who works on learning. His research focuses especially on perception-based learning, as found in experts from wine tasters to radiologists to bird watchers. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Minerva Schools at KGI-a new university founded on the principles of the science of learning-where he plays a central role in curriculum design for the School of Social Sciences. Prior to Minerva he was an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.

• PREFACEPART 1. THE NATURE OF PERCEPTUAL LEARNINGI. HOW TO UNDERSTAND PERCEPTUAL LEARNING1.1 Introduction 1.2 What Is Perceptual Learning?1.3 A Taxonomy of Perceptual Learning Cases 1.4 The Offloading View of Perceptual Learning1.5 Looking Ahead II. IS PERCEPTUAL LEARNING GENUINELY PERCEPTUAL?2.1 Introduction 2.2 Skepticism about Perceptual Learning as Genuinely Perceptual2.3 Introspective Evidence that Perceptual Learning Is Genuinely Perceptual2.4 Neuroscientific Evidence that Perceptual Learning Is Genuinely Perceptual2.5 Behavioral Evidence that Perceptual Learning Is Genuinely Perceptual2.6 ConclusionPART 2. THE SCOPE OF PERCEPTUAL LEARNINGIII. LEARNED ATTENTION AND THE CONTENTS OF PERCEPTION3.1 Introduction3.2 The Phenomenal Contrast Argument 3.3 The Attentional Reply to the Phenomenal Contrast Argument3.4 The Blind Flailing Model of Perceptual Learning3.5 A New Attentional Reply to the Phenomenal Contrast Argument3.6 Learned Attention and the Offloading View IV. LEARNED ATTENTION II: SENSORY SUBSTITUTION 4.1 Introduction4.2 Attentional Weighting in Distal Attribution4.3 Latent Inhibition as a Kind of Learned Attention4.4 Applying Principles of Attentional Training to Sensory Substitution4.5 Perceptual Learning and Perceptual Hacking4.6 An Empirical Test for Determining the Nature of SSD Experience4.7 ConclusionV. "CHUNKING" THE WORLD THROUGH MULTISENSORY PERCEPTION 5.1 Introduction 5.2 The Kind of Conscious Awareness We Have in Multisensory Perception5.3 Unitization as a Perceptual Learning Mechanism5.4 Applying Unitization to Multisensory Cases5.5 Objections and Replies 5.6 Unitization and the Offloading View 5.7 ConclusionVI. LEARNING TO DIFFERENTIATE PROPERTIES: SPEECH PERCEPTION6.1 Introduction6.2 The Phenomenal Contrast Argument for Hearing Meanings6.3 The Argument from Homophones6.4 The Role of Differentiation in Speech Perception6.5 Why Perceptual Learning Does Not Support the View that We Hear Meanings 6.6 The Offloading View and Speech Perception6.7 ConclusionVII. LEARNING TO DIFFERENTIATE OBJECTS: THE CASE OF MEMORY COLOR 7.1 Introduction7.2 Memory Color and Cognitive Penetration7.3 A Brief Survey of Memory Color Studies7.4 Why Memory Color Is Not a Mechanism for Color Constancy7.5 Applying Differentiation to Memory Color7.6 Memory Color and the Offloading View7.7 ConclusionCONCLUSION: PERCEPTUAL LEARNING BEYOND PHILOSOPHY OF MINDACKNOWLEDGEMENTSREFERENCES