Habit-Like Forms of Perceptual Learning

Abstract In the growing literature on perceptual learning, most researchers assume it to be a form of skill. In this paper, we argue that at least some forms of perceptual learning are better understood as habits. Focusing on visual cases, we call these visual habits and, when widely shared in a cultural milieu, visual customs. We construe visual habits and customs as automatic enactments of fixed attentional patterns triggered by situational cues. We then consider two main implications of this view. First, perceptual learning is not always advantageous; in certain contexts, it may even hinder the subject. Second, visual habits reveal how historical biases shape perceptual attention.