An experiment in the desert
As the afternoon sun burned her, she could feel her throat go dry and yearn for water. This was the first day of her experiment in the desert. She was meticulously documenting everything that she saw and also everything that she felt. Keeping her eyes ahead, she kept walking. She passed by several palm trees on her way. Finally from a distance, she spotted an oasis. Desperately hoping it would not be a mirage, she headed straight for it. It was indeed an oasis. Days passed by, and she had not yet given up. With the meager resources that she had carried, she managed to survive. Of course, she kept stumbling upon oases, which made sure she would not run out of water. After this venture of hers, she became a popular figure among psychologists. They all wanted to know how her mind played games with her during her time in the desert. She had to answer all sorts of questionnaires and give verbal reports of her journey. Soon she got busy writing her memoir. An interesting sentence that she wrote drove the psychologists crazy,
“After several days, I just knew when the oasis was coming. Perhaps, God was helping me predict the oases.”
They all wanted to know how this was possible. She was once again subjected to several questions. Although it took a while, they cracked the mystery. Surprisingly, there was a pattern in the number of palm trees right before an oasis, which she had managed to pick up (Given that she correctly answered, on questioning). Despite that, she vehemently denied having noticed any such pattern.
Years later, scientists discovered what is now known as ‘Task-irrelevant perceptual learning’ (TIPL). Perceptual learning takes place as one gains experience and becomes better at perceiving things from the surrounding. So long, this kind of learning was only attributed to relevant things and scientists concluded that attention is required in order to learn. Her task was to find oases in the desert and walk in the right direction, for which perceiving anything that appeared like an oasis would have been relevant. The number of palm trees on her way was nowhere relevant to what she had on her mind. Yet, she may have formed an implicit association with the number of palm trees that she encountered and her reward, which was water. Her experiment in the desert may have opened up an interesting field of research where one can learn irrelevant things as long as it constantly leads to rewards. If this a boon or a bane, is yet to be discovered.
