Initial uncertainty impacts statistical learning in sound sequence processing

Publication date: Available online 19 May 2018Source: NeuroscienceAuthor(s): Juanita Todd, Alexander Provost, Lisa Whitson, Daniel MullensAbstractThis paper features two studies confirming a lasting impact of first learning on how subsequent experience is weighted in early relevance-filtering processes. In both studies participants were exposed to sequences of sound that contained a regular pattern on two different timescales. Regular patterning in sound is readily detected by the auditory system and used to form “prediction models” that define the most likely properties of sound to be encountered in a given context. The presence and strength of these prediction models is inferred from changes in automatically elicited components of auditory evoked potentials. Both studies employed sound sequences that contained both a local and longer-term pattern. The local pattern was defined by a regular repeating pure tone occasionally interrupted by a rare deviating tone (p = 0.125) that was physically different (a 30 ms vs. 60 ms duration difference in one condition and a 1000 Hz vs. 1500 Hz frequency difference in the other). The longer-term pattern was defined by the rate at which the two tones alternated probabilities (i.e., the tone that was first rare became common and the tone that was first common became rare). There was no task related to the tones and participants were asked to ignore them while focussing attention on a movie with subtitl...
Source: Neuroscience - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research