Imaging early consolidation of perceptual learning with face stimuli during rest

Studies investigating visual perceptual learning (VPL) have traditionally used simple visual tasks and focused on assessing the active (online) processes of learning and memory: encoding and retrieval. The assessment of complex stimuli and the passive (offline) process of consolidation is, however, necessary for a full understanding of the development of VPL and has received little direct analysis. In the current study, 30 young adults completed a VPL task with face stimuli while undergoing an fMRI scan. Activity was assessed within offline rest breaks both during and after the learning task. Changes in baseline activity within functionally-relevant regions were identified during these rest periods. Furthermore, differences in consolidation-related resting activity were evident between individuals who performed well on the active task, and those who performed less well. These findings provide preliminary evidence that activity during offline rest breaks, which immediately follow the active task, is associated with consolidation and learning, in VPL.     

Moving words: dynamic representations in language comprehension

Eighty-two participants listened to sentences and then judged whether two sequentially presented visual objects were the same. On critical trials, participants heard a sentence describe the motion of a ball toward or away from the observer (e.g., “The pitcher hurled the softball to you”). Seven hundred and fifty milliseconds after the offset of the sentence, a picture of an object was presented for 500 ms, followed by another picture. On critical trials, the two pictures depicted the kind of ball mentioned in the sentence. The second picture was displayed 175 ms after the first. Crucially, it was either slightly larger or smaller than the first picture, thus suggesting movement of the ball toward or away from the observer. Participants responded more quickly when the implied movement of the balls matched the movement described in the sentence. This result provides support for the view that language comprehension involves dynamic perceptual simulations.     

Perceptual fluency effects in judgments of creativity and beauty: creative objects are perceived fluently yet they are visually complex

ABSTRACT

Perceptual fluency typically has a positive influence on aesthetic evaluations of beauty, but few studies have examined its influence on creativity evaluations. Creativity has two facets, originality and quality. If creativity judgments involve estimating product originality, such judgments may be associated with perceptual disfluency, while product quality may be associated with perceptual fluency. We examined the relationship between perceptual fluency and judgments of creativity and beauty across seven experiments. Creativity judgments were affected by most perceptual fluencysources. We observed a highly-fluent-is-beautiful-and-creative relation when testing repeated exposure and figure-ground contrast. Prototypicality displayed a high-fluency–is-beautiful relation, with creativity judgments unaffected. Visual complexity displayed a consistent disfluent-is-creative effect, with mixed results for beauty. For creativity (but not beauty) evaluations, increased saliency of visual complexity led to discounting fluent-is-creative effects, supporting the hypothesis that there are at least two fluency pathways to creativity judgments that take both originality and quality into account.