ERIC Number: EJ1475202
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Dec
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-2056-7936
Available Date: 2025-06-19
Statistical Learning Dynamically Shapes Auditory Perception
Sahil Luthra1; Austin Luor2; Adam T. Tierney3; Frederic Dick4; Lori L. Holt2
npj Science of Learning, v10 Article 41 2025
Humans implicitly pick up on probabilities of stimuli and events, yet it remains unclear how statistical learning builds expectations that affect perception. Across 29 experiments, we examine the influence of task-irrelevant distributions--defined across acoustic frequency--on both tone detection in noise and tone duration judgments. The shape and range of the frequency distributions impact suppression and enhancement effects, as does a given tone's position within the range. Perception adapts quickly to changing distributions, but past distributions influence future judgments. Massed exposure to a single frequency impacts perception along a range of subsequently encountered frequencies. A novel bias emerges as well: lower frequencies are perceived as longer and higher ones as shorter. Probability-driven learning dynamically shapes perception, driven by interacting influences of sensory processing, distributional learning, and selective attention that sculpt a gain function involving modest enhancement of more-likely stimuli, and robust suppression of less-likely stimuli.
Descriptors: Probability, Statistics, Expectation, Auditory Perception, Acoustics, Intonation, Bias, Sensory Experience, Attention, Stimuli
Nature Portfolio. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://www.nature.com/npjscilearn/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Institutes of Health (NIH) (DHHS); National Science Foundation (NSF), Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE); National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS); National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) (DHHS/NIH); National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) (DHHS/NIH)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: R01DC004674; 2414066; 2420979; T32GM081760; F32DC020625
Data File: URL: https://osf.io/xdgnw/
Author Affiliations: 1Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Psychology, Pittsburgh, USA; 2The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Psychology & Center for Perceptual Systems, Austin, USA; 3University of London, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck College, London, UK; 4University College London, Experimental Psychology, London, UK