Head-centred meridian effect on auditory spatial attention orienting.
Six experiments examined the issue of whether one single system or separate systems underlie visual and auditory orienting of spatial attention. When auditory targets were used, reaction times were slower on trials in which cued and target locations were at opposite sides of the vertical head-centred meridian than on trials in which cued and target locations were at opposite sides of the vertical visual meridian or were not separated by any meridian. The head-centred meridian effect for auditory stimuli was apparent when targets were cued by either visual (Experiments 2, 3, and 6) or auditory cues (Experiment 5). Also, the head-centred meridian effect was found when targets were delivered either through headphones (Experiments 2, 3, and 5) or external loud-speakers (Experiment 6). Conversely, participants showed a visual meridian effect when they were required to respond to visual targets (Experiment 4). These results strongly suggest that auditory and visual spatial attention systems are indeed separate, as far as endogenous orienting is concerned.
Department of Psychology, University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, Italy. fabio.ferlazzo@uniromal.it
Fabio
F
Ferlazzo
Messandro
M
Couyoumdjian
Tullia
T
Padovani
Marta Olivetti
MO
Belardinelli
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D001307:Auditory Perception; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006257:Head; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011187:Posture; D011930:Reaction Time; D013017:Sound Localization; D013028:Space Perception