No practice and still perfect: Different routes for promoting offline gains in perceptual learning
- 1Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Oxfordlaan 55, 6229EV Maastricht, the Netherlands.
- 2School of Psychological Sciences and Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv Univeristy, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
Abstract
Visual perceptual learning is thought to require extensive training, but a few reminder trials can sometimes replace daily practice. In a 5-day texture discrimination learning experiment, we showed that both accounts need amendment. Following an initial training session, we found that further skill acquisition can be accomplished either with repeated daily administration of a few reminder trials or by offline learning without any further training, depending on attentional context and task demands. In dual-task conditions involving the simultaneous discrimination of a peripheral texture target and a central fixation target, reminders were as effective as daily training, whereas no learning occurred without reminders. In contrast, in a single-task condition without a fixation task, learning emerged without reminders or training. Hence, attentional context and task demands may determine the ability of reminders or protracted consolidation to yield offline learning gains that are comparable to those delivered by daily training.
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BibTeX
@article{kolken2026practice,
title = {{No practice and still perfect: Different routes for promoting offline gains in perceptual learning}},
author = {Ylka Kolken and Mark J Roberts and Parisa Naseri and Federico De Martino and Nitzan Censor and Peter De Weerd},
journal = {iScience},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.isci.2026.117839},
url = {https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(26)03220-7},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - No practice and still perfect: Different routes for promoting offline gains in perceptual learning
AU - Ylka Kolken
AU - Mark J Roberts
AU - Parisa Naseri
AU - Federico De Martino
AU - Nitzan Censor
AU - Peter De Weerd
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/13
JO - iScience
DO - 10.1016/j.isci.2026.117839
UR - https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(26)03220-7
AB - Visual perceptual learning is thought to require extensive training, but a few reminder trials can sometimes replace daily practice. In a 5-day texture discrimination learning experiment, we showed that both accounts need amendment. Following an initial training session, we found that further skill acquisition can be accomplished either with repeated daily administration of a few reminder trials or by offline learning without any further training, depending on attentional context and task demands. In dual-task conditions involving the simultaneous discrimination of a peripheral texture target and a central fixation target, reminders were as effective as daily training, whereas no learning occurred without reminders. In contrast, in a single-task condition without a fixation task, learning emerged without reminders or training. Hence, attentional context and task demands may determine the ability of reminders or protracted consolidation to yield offline learning gains that are comparable to those delivered by daily training.
SN - 2589-0042
ER -