Fig. 3: Distributional learning across a task-irrelevant dimension impacts perceptual decisions.
From: Statistical learning dynamically shapes auditory perception
Each panel plots mean response time as a function of tones’ acoustic frequency. The histograms to the left show distributional regularities for each experiment. Marker size scales with tone probability. Error bars are standard error of the mean. a Response time to report tone duration is impacted by the probability of tones’ acoustic frequency across Exp 2a-c. The influence is graded, with faster decision times for equivalently low-probability tones closer to the distribution mode (see inset). b Unlike the dual spotlight for tone detection in Exp 1e-f, there is no significant response time difference for the two more probable modes in Exp 2d, a consequence of a frequency-duration perceptual bias (see Supplementary Fig. 1). c Exp 2e evaluated the frequency-duration bias across an equiprobable distribution in the first half of the study (orange, dashed) with a switch to the bimodal distribution at study midpoint (yellow, solid). The bias is largest at the edges of the distribution where it interacts with the bimodal distributional regularity (see Supplementary Fig. 1).
