abstract Clayton Hickey

Clayton Hickey (University of Rovereto)

The undervalued role of reward in visual perception and selection

Some theories of reinforcement learning suggest that reward can have a direct impact on vision, priming the perceptual representation of visual features that define reward-associated stimuli. Objects with these features become salient, drawing attention to their location. Though this idea has been influential - particularly in addiction research - it has never been robustly tested. In this talk I present results from a series of behavioural, ERP, and eye movement studies that demonstrate a direct, low-level role for reward in determining perceptual and selective processing of visual stimuli.