title: Cross-modal enhancement of perceived brightness: sensory interaction versus response bias.
abstract: Stein, London, Wilkinson, and Price (1996) reported the presence of cross-modal enhancement of perceived visual intensity: Participants tended to rate weak lights as brighter when accompanied by a concurrent pulse of white noise than when presented alone. In the present study, two methods were used to determine whether the enhancement reflects an early-stage sensory process or a later-stage decisional process, such as a response bias. First, enhancement was eliminated when the noise accompanied the light on only 25% versus 50% of the trials. Second, enhancement was absent when tested with a paired-comparison method. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the sound-induced enhancement in judgments of brightness reflects a response bias, rather than an early sensory process--that is, enhancement is the result of a relatively late decisional process.
authors.affiliation: John B. Pierce Laboratory, New Haven, Connecticut 06519, USA. eodgaard@jbpierce.org
authors.forename: Eric C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Odgaard
authors.forename: Yoav
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Arieh
authors.forename: Lawrence E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Marks
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008027:Light; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise; D011897:Random Allocation; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception