Role of endogenous and exogenous attention in task-relevant visual perceptual learning

The present study examined the role of exogenous and endogenous attention
in task relevant visual perceptual learning (TR-VPL). VPL performance was
assessed by examining the learning to a trained stimulus feature and
transfer of learning to an untrained stimulus feature. To assess the
differential role of attention in VPL, two types of attentional cues were
manipulated; exogenous and endogenous. In order to assess the
effectiveness of the attentional cue, the two types of attentional cues
were further divided into three cue-validity conditions. Participants were
trained, on a novel task, to detect the presence of a complex gabor patch
embedded in fixed Gaussian contrast noise while contrast thresholds were
varied. The results showed initial differences were found prior to
training, and so the magnitude of learning was assessed. Exogenous and
endogenous attention were both found to facilitate learning and feature
transfer when investigating pre-test and post-test thresholds. However,
examination of training data indicate attentional differences; with
endogenous attention showing consistently lower contrast thresholds as
compared to exogenous attention suggesting greater impact of training with
endogenous attention. We conclude that several factors, including the use
of stimuli that resulted in rapid learning, may have contributed to the
generalization of learning found in the present study.