The impacts of training on change deafness and build-up in a flicker task

Abstract

Performance on auditory change detection tasks can be improved by training. We examined the stimulus specificity of these training effects in behavior and ERPs. A flicker change detection task was employed in which spatialized auditory scenes were alternated until a "change" or "same" response was made. For half of the trials, scenes were identical. The other half contained changes in the spatial locations of objects from scene to scene. On Day 1, participants were either trained on this auditory change detection task (trained group), or trained on a non-auditory change detection task (control group). On Day 2, all participants were tested on the flicker task while EEG was recorded. The trained group showed greater change detection accuracy than the control group. They were less biased to respond "same" and showed full generalization of learning from trained to novel auditory objects. ERPs for "change" compared to "same" trials showed more negative going P1, N1, and P2 amplitudes, as well as a larger P3b amplitude. The P3b amplitude also differed between the trained and control group, with larger amplitudes for the trained group. Analysis of ERPs to scenes viewed prior to a decision revealed build-up of a difference between "change" and "same" trials in N1 and P2. Results demonstrate that training has an impact early in the "same" versus "change" decision-making process, and that the flicker paradigm combined with the ERP method can be used to study the build-up of change detection in auditory scenes.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Nov 17, 2022
Source ID
10.1371/journal.pone.0276157

Entities

People

  • Brian Simpson
  • Eduardo Mercado
  • Matthew Wisniewski
  • Natalie J. Ball

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory
  • Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Biology
  • Psychology

Readers

  • Brain and Cognitive Science; Experimental Psychology; Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Vision Science/Vision Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience.