Perceptual learning in visual search: some evidence of specificities.

To test a recent suggestion that perceptual learning in visual search is non-specific, two groups of subjects were trained on visual search tasks and tested for transfer of learning to new tasks. One group was trained on parallel ("pop-out") tasks and transferred to serial, conjunction tasks and the other group trained on conjunction and transferred to pop-out. Some (not all) tasks which are initially serial, rapidly became parallel. Some transfer occurred between the different types of tasks. Under some conditions transfer was either absent or even negative. The specificities observed may reflect the roles of the brain regions involved in learning.