Mixed training at high and low accuracy levels leads to perceptual learning without feedback

In this study, we investigated whether mixing easy and difficult trials can lead to learning in the difficult conditions. We hypothesized that while feedback is necessary for significant learning in training regimes consisting solely of low training accuracy trials, training mixtures with sufficient proportions of high accuracy training trials would lead to significant learning without feedback. Thirty-six subjects were divided into one experimental group in which trials with high training accuracy were mixed with those with low training accuracy and no feedback, and five control groups in which high and low accuracy training were mixed in the presence of feedback; high and high training accuracy were mixed or low and low training accuracy were mixed with and without feedback trials. Contrast threshold improved significantly in the low accuracy condition in the presence of high training accuracy trials (the high-low mixture group) in the absence of feedback, although no significant learning was found in the low accuracy condition in the group with the low-low mixture without feedback. Moreover, the magnitude of improvement in low accuracy trials without feedback in the high-low training mixture is comparable to that in the high accuracy training without feedback condition and those obtained in the presence of trial-by-trial external feedback. The results are both qualitatively and quantitatively consistent with the predictions of the Augmented Hebbian Re-Weighting model. We conclude that mixed training at high and low accuracy levels can lead to perceptual learning at low training accuracy levels without feedback. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.