El efecto de la preexposición alternada y en bloques a los estímulos en una tarea de identificación de estímulos visuales

Résumé

Two experiments were conducted to assess the preexposure effects in stimuli differentiation by means of same/different judgments in a target identification task. The general aim of the study was testing whether or not the intermixed preexposure to the stimuli might improve the performance of the participants in the task in a greater extent that the blocked preexposure. Experiment 1 found a general benefic effect of the preexposure in the subsequent ability to differentiate the stimuli, being this effect similar after intermixed and blocked preexposure to the stimuli. For Experiment 2, more complex and similar stimuli were created, adding more common elements to the stimuli used in Experiment 1. In this case, a benefit of the intermixed, but not of the blocked preexposure, was observed at the beginning of the task. It is estimated that participants who received the blocked preexposure schedule improved their performance during the task, being then similar to the performance showed by the participants who received the intermixed preexposure schedule. This finding might indicate a potentially relevant interaction between the preexposure effects and the learning occurring during the task conducted to asses such effects. The implications that this potential interaction might have for perceptual learning are discussed.