Definition
The term “exposure-based perceptual learning (EPL)” refers to long-lasting improvements in performance of perceptual tasks as a result of passive exposure to a feature of stimuli. Whereas a traditional view of “perceptual learning” emphasizes a subject’s active performance during training, EPL shows that perceptual learning can occur even when subjects are passively exposed to the feature.
The concept of EPL originated from one seminal study finding “task-irrelevant perceptual learning (TIPL)” (Watanabe et al. 2001). The study showed that, contrary to the traditional view that perceptual learning can only occur with focused attention to the features relevant to a given task, perceptual learning occurred on a subliminal feature that was irrelevant to the main task (such that the learned feature could not be attended to during training). TIPL implied that perceptual learning was accomplished not only by active performance but also by passive exposure to a feature.
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Choi, H., Watanabe, T. (2012). Exposure-Based Perceptual Learning. In: Seel, N.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_1635
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