Tal, A. & Bar, M.
The Leslie and Susan Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Statistical learning research has revealed that the brain is remarkably attuned to statistical regularities embedded in the world around it. However, across different modalities and experimental paradigms, it has been found that this faculty is drastically weakened if regularities are introduced late in an experiment rather than from its very onset. This apparent rigidity in adapting to change is surprising given the dynamic real-world environment in which statistical learning should operate. The current study examines how the extent of statistical learning may in itself vary. Using the paradigm of contextual cueing, shifts in visual statistical regularities made under different contextual settings are examined. We propose that implicit sensitivity to statistical regularities can be modulated by conscious framing, and a mechanism accounting for this phenomenon will be offered.