Moderators and Mediators of Perceptual Learning

NCT05894967 | Recruiting

• 3 other identifiers: 2020-0138R01EY031226L&S/PSYCHOLOGY/PSYCHOLOGY
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 1,140
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 3

Brief Summary

This is a research study about how training can impact performance on cognitive tasks. Participants are between 18 and 30 and 60 to 85 years of age, have normal (or corrected to normal) vision, and have no neurological conditions that would preclude their ability to complete computerized cognitive tasks. Up to 1140 participants will be on study for up to 8 weeks.

Conditions

Cognitive Change

Keywords

Vision Training

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (4)

• Change in Near Transfer Task

  We will utilize an overarching task structure that allows us to assess learning on trained stimuli and transfer to untrained stimuli; locations, orientations, stimulus timings (e.g., we will assess contrast sensitivity for 6 different orientations). A trial begins with a fixation-point presented for 500ms. A target stimulus then appears for 128ms and then disappears (this timing was chosen to preclude participants making eye-movements to the stimuli). The participant is then required to respond by indicating the orientation of the stimulus (e.g., the major axis of a Gabor stimulus or gap-side of a C stimulus). In contrast tests, a staircase is run on the contrast of the target stimulus. In acuity tests, a staircase is run on the size of the stimulus. In parafoveal tests, stimuli are presented at 5° eccentricity.

  Baseline to Post-test 2, an average of 5-8 weeks

• Change in Transfer to Visual Search

  In a T/L annular visual-search task (1° stimuli, presented at 5° eccentricity at each of 8 evenly spaced locations), on each trial, 7 positions are filled with a distractor (upside-down Ls, half black and half white), while 1 position contains a target (rightside-up T that is either white or black). Stimuli are presented for 256ms and, after a variable SOA, a stimulus-mask (asterixis) appears. Participants report the color of the T. A 3/1 staircase controls the SOA of the mask (shorter SOAs = less time between stimulus and mask = more difficult). This task tests how training impacts processing time (i.e., time necessary to find and identify targets). Also, given that the same locations are used as in the parafoveal training, we can also estimate the extent to which transfer to visual search occurs and, if so, whether it is specific to the trained location.

  Baseline to Post-test 2, an average of 5-8 weeks

• Change in Transfer to Reading

  To understand visual performance related to reading, we employ the MNRead task, where participants read short sentences out-loud at various font-sizes. Dependent variables include reading speed, minimal text-size (another measure of acuity), and also critical print-size (text-size at which reading speed slows down).

  Baseline to Post-test 2, an average of 5-8 weeks

• Change in Transfer to Auditory Attention

  The procedure is based upon a speaker-on-speaker task where participants choose between 36 call signs (a color and number) spoken by a speaker. This task measures auditory thresholds for speech in the presence of other talkers, when all talkers are spatially collocated compared to when they are spatially offset.

  Baseline to Post-test 2, an average of 5-8 weeks

Study Arms (18)

C1 - Standard Perceptual Learning (SPL)

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in younger cohort will complete SPL training during the first phase of training. In the cross-over they will then complete either SPL, LT, SS, MD, NT, TWF, or NCC.

Behavioral: C1 - Standard Perceptual Learning (SPL); Behavioral: C2 - Long Training (LT); Behavioral: C3 - Short Staircases (SS); Behavioral: C4 - Mixed Difficulty (MD); Behavioral: C5 - Noise Training (NT); Behavioral: C6 - Training with Flankers (TWF); Behavioral: No Contact Control

C2 - Long Training (LT)

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in younger cohort will complete LT training during the first phase of training. In the cross-over they will then complete either LT, SPL, or NCC.

Behavioral: C1 - Standard Perceptual Learning (SPL); Behavioral: C2 - Long Training (LT); Behavioral: No Contact Control

C3 - Short Staircases (SS)

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in younger cohort will complete SS training during the first phase of training. In the cross-over they will then complete either SS, SPL, or NCC.

Behavioral: C1 - Standard Perceptual Learning (SPL); Behavioral: C3 - Short Staircases (SS); Behavioral: No Contact Control

C4 - Mixed Difficulty (MD)

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in younger cohort will complete MD training during the first phase of training. In the cross-over they will then complete either MD, SPL, or NCC.

Behavioral: C1 - Standard Perceptual Learning (SPL); Behavioral: C4 - Mixed Difficulty (MD); Behavioral: No Contact Control

C5 - Noise Training (NT)

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in younger cohort will complete NT training during the first phase of training. In the cross-over they will then complete either NT, SPL, or NCC.

Behavioral: C1 - Standard Perceptual Learning (SPL); Behavioral: C5 - Noise Training (NT); Behavioral: No Contact Control

C6 - Training with Flankers (TWF

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in younger cohort will complete TWF training during the first phase of training. In the cross-over they will then complete eitherTWF, SPL, or NCC.

Behavioral: C1 - Standard Perceptual Learning (SPL); Behavioral: C6 - Training with Flankers (TWF); Behavioral: No Contact Control

C7 - Parafoveal Training (PT)

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in younger cohort will complete PT training during the first phase of training. In the cross-over they will then complete either PT, SV, CF, ExAT, EnAT, MF, or NCC.

Behavioral: C7 - Parafoveal Training (PT); Behavioral: C8 - Stimulus Variety (SV); Behavioral: C8a - Complex Features (CF); Behavioral: C9 - Exogenous Attention Training (ExAT); Behavioral: C10 - Endogenous Attention Training (EnAT); Behavioral: C11 - Multisensory Facilitation (MF); Behavioral: No Contact Control

C8 - Stimulus Variety (SV)

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in younger cohort will complete SV training during the first phase of training. In the cross-over they will then complete either SV, PT, or NCC.

Behavioral: C7 - Parafoveal Training (PT); Behavioral: C8 - Stimulus Variety (SV); Behavioral: No Contact Control

C8a - Complex Features (CF)

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in younger cohort will complete CF training during the first phase of training. In the cross-over they will then complete either CF, PT, NCC.

Behavioral: C7 - Parafoveal Training (PT); Behavioral: C8a - Complex Features (CF); Behavioral: No Contact Control

C9 - Exogenous Attention Training (ExAT)

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in younger cohort will complete ExAT training during the first phase of training. In the cross-over they will then complete either ExAT, PT, NCC.

Behavioral: C7 - Parafoveal Training (PT); Behavioral: C9 - Exogenous Attention Training (ExAT); Behavioral: No Contact Control

C10 - Endogenous Attention Training (EnAT)

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in younger cohort will complete EnAT training during the first phase of training. In the cross-over they will then complete either EnAT, PT, NCC.

Behavioral: C7 - Parafoveal Training (PT); Behavioral: C10 - Endogenous Attention Training (EnAT); Behavioral: No Contact Control

C11 - Multisensory Facilitation (MF)

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in younger cohort will complete MF training during the first phase of training. In the cross-over they will then complete either MF, PT, NCC.

Behavioral: C7 - Parafoveal Training (PT); Behavioral: C11 - Multisensory Facilitation (MF); Behavioral: No Contact Control

No Contact Control

OTHER

Participants in younger cohort will complete NCC training during the first phase of training. In the cross-over they will then complete either SPL, LT, SS, MD, NT, TWF, PT, SV, CF, ExAT, EnAT, MF, NCC.

Behavioral: C1 - Standard Perceptual Learning (SPL); Behavioral: C2 - Long Training (LT); Behavioral: C3 - Short Staircases (SS); Behavioral: C4 - Mixed Difficulty (MD); Behavioral: C5 - Noise Training (NT); Behavioral: C6 - Training with Flankers (TWF); Behavioral: C7 - Parafoveal Training (PT); Behavioral: C8 - Stimulus Variety (SV); Behavioral: C8a - Complex Features (CF); Behavioral: C9 - Exogenous Attention Training (ExAT); Behavioral: C10 - Endogenous Attention Training (EnAT); Behavioral: C11 - Multisensory Facilitation (MF); Behavioral: No Contact Control

OA1 - Standard Perceptual Learning

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in older cohort will complete SPL condition.

Behavioral: C1 - Standard Perceptual Learning (SPL)

OA2 - Noise Training

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in older cohort will complete NT condition.

Behavioral: C5 - Noise Training (NT)

OA3 - Training with Flankers

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in older cohort will complete TWF condition.

Behavioral: C6 - Training with Flankers (TWF)

OA4 - Stimulus Variety

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in older cohort will complete SV condition.

Behavioral: C8 - Stimulus Variety (SV)

OA5 - No Contact Control

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in older cohort will complete NCC condition.

Behavioral: No Contact Control

Interventions

C1 - Standard Perceptual Learning (SPL) BEHAVIORAL

Each trial starts with a fixation point (500ms) after which a Gabor (1° radius, at cut-off SF of 25% accuracy, estimated from Pre-Test CSF, at either 45° or 135°) appears for 128ms. The task is to indicate whether the Gabor was tilted left or right. Gabor contrast will be controlled by a 3/1 staircase (converging on approximately \~80% contrast threshold) across all training sessions.

C1 - Standard Perceptual Learning (SPL); C2 - Long Training (LT); C3 - Short Staircases (SS); C4 - Mixed Difficulty (MD); C5 - Noise Training (NT); C6 - Training with Flankers (TWF; No Contact Control; OA1 - Standard Perceptual Learning

C2 - Long Training (LT) BEHAVIORAL

Will be the same as the SPL with the exception that each session in LT will be twice as long as in SPL.

C1 - Standard Perceptual Learning (SPL); C2 - Long Training (LT); No Contact Control

C5 - Noise Training (NT) BEHAVIORAL

The NT condition will be the same as SPL with the exception that contrast thresholds will be estimated in 5-different levels of external noise (10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%).

C1 - Standard Perceptual Learning (SPL); C5 - Noise Training (NT); No Contact Control; OA2 - Noise Training

C6 - Training with Flankers (TWF) BEHAVIORAL

TWF will be reasonably different from the standard SPL task. Here, on 50% of trials a target Gabor will be presented at either 45° or 135° (as in SPL) and will be flanked by two collinear Gabors. On the remaining 50% of trials, flankers will be present without a target. TWF is thus a yes/no detection task, which is necessary since the collinear flankers fully indicate the target orientation. In different 20-trial mini-blocks the flankers will appear either lambda, 1.5 lambda, or 2 lambda from the target (i.e., closer or further from the target) and target contrast will be controlled by a 3/1 staircase separately for each spacing.

C1 - Standard Perceptual Learning (SPL); C6 - Training with Flankers (TWF; No Contact Control; OA3 - Training with Flankers

C7 - Parafoveal Training (PT) BEHAVIORAL

The PT condition is the baseline for C8-C11 (all of which involve parafoveally presented targets). In PT, we utilize the same task as in SPL, however, in PT, in addition to central training, targets will also appear in one of two peripheral locations (5° eccentricity; angles = 135° and 270°). The location of targets will be randomized trial-wise so as to discourage eye-movements and independent 3/1 staircases will be run at each location. By training only 2 peripheral locations we can measure the extent to which training gives rise to location transfer (e.g., in transfer tasks examining performance at 8 different locations - 2 trained locations and 6 untrained locations). Furthermore, training at the central location facilitates comparisons between PT and SPL.

C10 - Endogenous Attention Training (EnAT); C11 - Multisensory Facilitation (MF); C7 - Parafoveal Training (PT); C8 - Stimulus Variety (SV); C8a - Complex Features (CF); C9 - Exogenous Attention Training (ExAT); No Contact Control

C8 - Stimulus Variety (SV) BEHAVIORAL

The base task for SV is the PT condition. However, SV employ 20 trial mini-blocks of different SFs (.75, 1.5, 3, 6, 12, 24 cpd) and locations (45°, 135°, 225°, 315° - i.e., more locations than PT, but not the full set tested in the transfer battery) with separate staircases for each SF and location. Orientations will also be drawn from a larger set (22.5°, 45°, 67.5° - for which participants respond "clockwise" and 112.5°, 135°, 157.5° - for which participants respond "counter-clockwise") and will vary on a trial-by-trial basis. This design holds-out 4 locations and 2 orientations to address transfer.

C7 - Parafoveal Training (PT); C8 - Stimulus Variety (SV); No Contact Control; OA4 - Stimulus Variety

C8a - Complex Features (CF) BEHAVIORAL

This is the same as C8, however we will use band-pass filtered stimuli similar to what has been done by a number of groups including Hussein et al.

C7 - Parafoveal Training (PT); C8a - Complex Features (CF); No Contact Control

C9 - Exogenous Attention Training (ExAT) BEHAVIORAL

Stimuli will be presented in a similar manner as in PT. However, in ExAT, a 100% valid cue, a small black dot - 48ms duration with an 96ms SOA prior to stimulus onset - will appear above the target location on each trial.

C7 - Parafoveal Training (PT); C9 - Exogenous Attention Training (ExAT); No Contact Control

C10 - Endogenous Attention Training (EnAT) BEHAVIORAL

Stimuli will be presented in a similar manner as in PT. However, in EnAT, a 100% valid cue (letter UL, LR; standing for upper left and lower right, respectively) - 150ms duration with an 500ms SOA prior to stimulus onset - will appear at the fixation point.

C10 - Endogenous Attention Training (EnAT); C7 - Parafoveal Training (PT); No Contact Control

C11 - Multisensory Facilitation (MF) BEHAVIORAL

MF utilizes the same basic task structure as in ExEAT, however, rather than a visual cue, an auditory cue will be used (50ms, 1000hz tone with sound location determined by convolving sound with generic head-related transfer function, kemar large ears.

C11 - Multisensory Facilitation (MF); C7 - Parafoveal Training (PT); No Contact Control

No Contact Control BEHAVIORAL

While not a "training condition" one type of experience that could be part of a condition is a no contact control (i.e., where participants do no training activities over the same rough time span as for the other training tasks).

C1 - Standard Perceptual Learning (SPL); C10 - Endogenous Attention Training (EnAT); C11 - Multisensory Facilitation (MF); C2 - Long Training (LT); C3 - Short Staircases (SS); C4 - Mixed Difficulty (MD); C5 - Noise Training (NT); C6 - Training with Flankers (TWF; C7 - Parafoveal Training (PT); C8 - Stimulus Variety (SV); C8a - Complex Features (CF); C9 - Exogenous Attention Training (ExAT); No Contact Control; OA5 - No Contact Control

C3 - Short Staircases (SS) BEHAVIORAL

Will be largely the same as SPL with the only difference being a change to the adaptive procedure. SS will use so-called "short-staircases," which are initialized at 60% contrast with steps of .05 log units and employs a 3/1 staircase that after every 40 trials is reset (the "short" in "short-staircases") back to 60% contrast.

C1 - Standard Perceptual Learning (SPL); C3 - Short Staircases (SS); No Contact Control

C4 - Mixed Difficulty (MD) BEHAVIORAL

This condition will be identical to SPL with the exception that two staircases - one a 2/1 staircase producing difficulties centered around 60-70% accuracy, the other a 4/1 staircase producing difficulties centered around 85-95% accuracy - will be utilized to control the stimuli.

C1 - Standard Perceptual Learning (SPL); C4 - Mixed Difficulty (MD); No Contact Control

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 85 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• between18 and 30 years of age (younger cohort)
• between 60 and 85 years of age (older cohort)
• Corrected vision of 20/40 or better (as assessed with an eye chart)
• No reported incidence of retinal pathology or neurological disease

You may not qualify if:

• Corrected vision of 20/40 or worse
• Evidence of retinal pathology or retinal disease

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Wisconsin, Madison: lead
• National Eye Institute (NEI): collaborator

Study Sites (3)

University of California

Riverside, California, 92521, United States

RECRUITING

Northeastern University

Boston, Massachusetts, 02115, United States

NOT YET RECRUITING

University of Wisconsin

Madison, Wisconsin, 53705, United States

RECRUITING

Study Officials

• C. Shawn Green

  University of Wisconsin, Madison

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Audrey A Carrillo, MA

CONTACT

6264828091; audreyc@ucr.edu

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: Participants in the younger adult cohort are randomized to 2 training conditions that they undergo sequentially (Arms C1-NCC). Participants in the older adult cohort are randomized to a single training condition (Arms OA1-OA5).

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: May 12, 2023
• First Posted: June 8, 2023
• Study Start: April 14, 2023
• Primary Completion (Estimated): February 28, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): March 31, 2027
• Last Updated: December 15, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-12

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (3)