Extraction of global structural regularities provides general 'gist' of our everyday visual environment as it does the gist of abnormality for medical experts reviewing medical images. We investigated whether naïve observers could learn this gist of medical abnormality. Fifteen participants completed nine adaptive training sessions viewing four…

Stimuli that capture the central tendency of presented exemplars are often preferred--a phenomenon also known as the classic beauty-in-averageness effect. However, recent studies have shown that this effect can reverse under certain conditions. We propose that a key variable for such ugliness-in-averageness effects is the category structure of the…

Recent fMRI studies have found that distinct neural systems may mediate perceptual category learning under implicit and explicit learning conditions. In these previous studies, however, different stimulus-encoding processes may have been associated with implicit versus explicit learning. The present design was aimed at decoupling the influence of…

Through the use of a new serial naming task, the authors investigated implicit learning of repeating sequences of abstract semantic categories. Participants named objects (e.g., table, shirt) appearing in random order. Unbeknownst to them, the semantic categories of the objects (e.g., furniture, clothing) followed a repeating sequence.…

Incidental learning research with mentally retarded children has produced findings inconsistent with those reported for the intellectually normal population. This study was designed to further investigate the efficacy of incidental semantic classification instructions relative to taxonomic classification instructions or superficial color…