Sarit F.A Szpiro^1,2, Maysa Agbaria¹; ¹University of Haifa, ²The Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities, University of Haifa, Israel

Background: Perceptual learning (PL) involves improvements in perceptual task performance through practice. Here, we examine visual PL for motion direction discrimination in children and adults. Based on developmental differences in neural plasticity, we explored whether children and adults would differ in the rate and magnitude of learning, as well as in transfer of learning to untrained directions. Methods: We examined children (ages 8-10) and adults (ages 18-40) who underwent the same procedure. Testing sessions (pretest and posttest) were conducted on in controlled laboratory settings, while the three training sessions (days 2-4) were delivered via web browser on participants' home computers. Participants viewed random dot kinematograms stimuli and performed a motion direction discrimination task. Stimuli consisted of near-oblique (40°±10°) or orthogonal (320°±10°) directions, that were counterbalanced to serve as trained or untrained conditions across participants. During testing, motion coherence thresholds were measured using a staircase procedure for both trained and untrained directions to assess learning specificity and transfer. During training, participants only viewed the trained directions. Results: Both age groups showed significant perceptual learning, with no differences in learning magnitude between children and adults. Moreover, both groups demonstrated complete transfer to untrained directions. Conclusions: These findings add to the growing literature on perceptual learning across development, suggesting that transfer patterns in motion discrimination may depend on task-specific factors rather than age-related differences in neural plasticity alone. Further research is needed to understand the conditions under which developmental differences in learning and generalization emerge.

Acknowledgements: Israel Science Foundation (ISF) [grant number 1198/22]