Perceptual learning and referral in the tactile system

Eleanor Gibson, in her classic monograph, ²³ defined perceptual learning as “an increase in the ability to extract information from the environment, as a result of experience and practice with stimulation coming from it”. An aspect of perceptual learning, that is frequently studied in the laboratory, is the improvement in perceptual performance that occurs with practice, for example, in the ability to distinguish by taste different wines²³ or teas. Although perceptual learning has not been studied as intensively in touch as it has been in vision, there has been a fair degree of interest in whether, and to what extent, perceptual learning effects transfer between different parts of the cutaneous surface and whether the rules governing such transfer differ from those that have been described in the visual system.