Serial Dependence Predicts Generalization in Perceptual Learning

Visual perception is shaped by recent experience, but how these momentary influences accumulate to support long-term learning and generalization remains unclear. Here, we asked whether short-term memory traces, attractive serial-dependence effects (SDEs), promote learning generalization. We re-analyzed over 200,000 trials from observers trained on a visual texture-discrimination task under three conditions that differentially modulated generalization. Under certain conditions, SDEs reached further back in time than previously reported and persisted after eight days of practice, despite the non-informative nature of past stimuli. Observers in conditions that promoted generalization displayed larger long-range SDEs, and individual SDE magnitude predicted transfer of learning across locations. We propose that SDE is associated with learning flexibility, providing a principled framework for when and why perceptual learning generalizes, which is central to theories of cognitive flexibility. Attractive serial dependence is not an extra mechanism in this model; it is the behavioral footprint of ongoing template plasticity required for flexibility in changing environments.