Examining the labeling advantage in category learning: An ERP investigation for evidence of perceptual sharpening
Year: 2024
Type: other
Abstract: This study builds on previous work demonstrating behavioral labeling advantages during category learning (Lupyan et al., 2007) and ERP labeling effects for previously learned categories (Maier & Abdul Rahman, 2019). To achieve this, we have participants complete two types of tasks designed using Psychopy behavioral testing software (Pierce et al., 2019). One is a same-different task in which participants are shown pairs of stimuli and asked to indicate whether or not they are identical. The other is a category learning task in which participants are asked to make classification judgements and given trial-by-trial auditory feedback, causing them to learn the diagnostic criterion of category membership through trial-and-error. Three sessions of the same-different task are interleaved before, between, and after two sessions of category learning. The stimuli consist of a cartoon image of an alien with a gabor patch superimposed on top (i.e., the alien's 'eye'), the gratings of which vary in spatial frequency and orientation. In the category learning task, participants are told that there are two types of aliens: friendly ones and hostile ones. Throughout the category learning task they learn that more vertical orientations of gratings indicate friendly aliens and more horizontal gratings indicate hostile ones, with spatial frequency being irrelevant to category membership. Half of the participants are assigned to the label condition, in which they hear a male voice speak a label representing the category of alien they just attempted to classify in addition. Notably, these labels are redundant in that they are presented in addition to the feedback indicating correct or incorrect classifications. In addition to examining whether a behavioral labeling advantage is evident throughout the course of category learning, we also examine changes in ERPs observed during sessions of a same-different task. Examining these ERPs during category training and in the same-different task at different stages of the experiment will allow us to infer the nature of the labeling advantage. The presence of a labeling effect in the early ERP signal (i.e., within the first 200 ms after stimulus onset) would be indicative of a perceptual sharpening effect, whereas a later ERP effect would be indicative of a post-perceptual effect.
Source: Open Science Framework
Authors: Colunga, Eliana, Mertens, Andrew
Institution: University of Colorado Boulder
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7117998975