Perceptual learning of orientation judgments in oblique meridians

Fourteen daily training sessions in orientation discrimination of foveal lines in the 45-deg meridian improved thresholds in the trained meridian by an average of 25 % in five observers. A substantial amount of training transferred to the other obliques, but none to the cardinal meridians, with a consequent reduction in the oblique effect. The data were interpreted as showing perceptual learning at two levels: performance facilitation specific to the trained orientation and improved proficiency globally. The failure of the cardinal orientations to share in the benefit is likely to have its origin in the fact that contour orientation in these meridians is so well established that it had already reached maximum hyperacuity thresholds. The judgment of obliques depends much more than the judgment of cardinals on whether the comparison and test stimuli are shown simultaneously or in succession, but this effect is not changed by perceptual training.