MacKenzie K., Aslin RN. & Fiser J. (2012) Statistical learning of hierarchical visual structures by human infants. BCCCD 2012, Budapest, Hungary [Abstract]
Brandeis University University of Rochester Brandeis University, USA Human infants are known to implicitly learn statistical regularities of their sensory environment in various perceptual domains. Visual statistical leaning studies with adults have illustrated that this learning is highly sophisticated and well approximated by optimal probabilistic chunking of the unfamiliar hierarchical input into statistically stable segments […]
Janacsek K, Fiser J, & Nemeth D. (2012). What is the best time to acquire new skills: age-related differences in implicit sequence learning across lifespan. BCCCD 2012, Budapest, Hungary [Abstract]
Implicit skill learning underlies not only motor, but also cognitive and social skills. Nevertheless, the ontogenetic changes in humansʼ implicit learning abilities have not yet been comprehensively characterized. We investigated such learning across the life span, between 4-85 years of age with an implicit probabilistic sequence learning task, and we found that the difference in […]
Lisitsyn D., Galperin H. & Fiser J. (2012) Linking eye fixation strategies to experience in visual statistical learning. VSS 2012, Journal of Vision 12 (9), 1005-1005 [Abstract]
Linking eye-movement to visual perception or to learning has been notoriously difficult due to the fact that the visual stimulus is either too simplified providing no insights to the true nature of learning or with too rich input, the process of learning becomes intractable. Visual statistical learning (VSL) provides an ideal framework for such studies […]
Ledley J., MacKenzie K. & Fiser J. (2012) Coding object size based rules in 3D visual scenes. VSS 2012, Journal of Vision 12 (9), 806-806 [Abstract]
Learning abstract rules in the auditory and visual domains is customarily investigated with the AAB vs. ABB paradigm where each scene contains three auditory events or visual objects and either identity or an attribute of these items, such as the size of the objects, follows a same-same-different (i.e. AAB) pattern during a training period. In […]
Popovic M., Lisitsyn D., Lengyel M. & Fiser J. (2012) Time to decide: sampling based representation of uncertainty in human vision. VSS 2012, Journal of Vision 12 (9), 616-616 [Abstract]
Growing behavioral evidence suggests that animals and humans represent uncertainty about both high and low-level sensory stimuli in the brain for probabilistic inference and learning. One proposal about the nature of the neural basis of this representation of uncertainty suggests that instantaneous membrane potentials of cortical sensory neurons correspond to statistical samples from a probability […]
Yang C., Lisitsyn D. & Fiser J. (2012) Testing the nature of the representation for binocular rivalry. VSS 2012, Journal of Vision 12 (9), 204-204 [Abstract]
Recently, several studies proposed a probabilistic framework for explaining the phenomenon of binocular rivalry, as an alternative to the classic bottom-up or eye-dominant interpretation of it. According to this framework, perception is generated from the observer’s internal model of the visual world, based on sampling-based probabilistic representations and computations in the cortex. To test the […]
Haefner RM., Berkes P. & Fiser J. (2012) The relation of decision-making and endogenous covert attention to sampling-based neural representations. VSS 2012, Journal of Vision 12 (9), 159-159 [Abstract]
Empirical evidence suggests that the brain during perception and decision-making has access to both point estimates of any external stimulus and to the certainty about this estimate. This requires a neural representation of entire probability distributions in the brain. Two alternatives for neural codes supporting such representations are probabilistic population codes (PPC) and sampling-based representations […]
MacKenzie KJ., McDevitt EA., Fiser J. & Mednick SC. (2012) The differing effects of REM and non-REM sleep on performance in visual statistical learning. VSS 2012, Journal of Vision 12 (9), 283-283 [Abstract]
Although visual statistical learning (VSL) has been established as a method for testing implicit knowledge gained through observation, little is known about the mechanisms underlying this type of learning. We examined the role of sleep in stabilization and consolidation of learning in a typical VSL task, where subjects observed scenes composed of simple shape combinations […]
Fiser J., Orbán G., Berkes P. & Lengyel M. (2012) Explaining neural variability in the visual cortex through sampling-based neural representations. AREADNE 2012: Research in Encoding and Decoding of Neural Ensembles, Santorini, Greece [Abstract]
It is well-documented that neural responses in sensory cortices are highly variable: the same stimulus can evoke a different response on each presentation. Traditionally, this variability has been considered as noise and eliminated by using trial-averaged responses. Such averaged responses have been used almost exclusively for characterizing neural responses and mapping receptive fields with tuning […]
Popovic M., Lengyel M. & Fiser J. (2012) Decision-making under time constraints supports sampling-based representation of uncertainty in vision. ECVP 2012, Perception 41, 58-59 [Abstract]
Increasing body of psychophysical evidence supports the view of human perception as probabilistic inference that relies on representations of uncertainty about sensory stimuli and that is appropriate for statistically optimal decision making and learning. A recent proposal concerning the neural bases of these representations posits that instantaneous neural activity corresponds to samples from the probability […]