Can a space-perception conflict be solved with three sense modalities?
A cross-modal conflict over location was resolved in an unexpected way. When vision and proprioception provide conflicting information, which modality should dominate is ambiguous. A visual-proprioceptive conflict was created with a prism and, to logically disambiguate the problem, auditory information was added that either agreed with vision (group 1), agreed with proprioception (group 2), or was absent (group 3). While a scarcity of research addresses the interaction of three modalities, I predicted error should be attributed to the modality in the minority. Instead, the opposite was found: adaptation consisted of a large change in arm proprioception and a small change affecting vision in group 2, and the reverse in group 1. Group 1 was not different than group 3. Findings suggested adaptation to separate two-way conflicts, possibly influenced by direction of attention, rather than a direct solution to a three-way modality problem.
Bedford
Felice L
FL
Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. bedford@u.arizona.edu
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011434:Proprioception; D013017:Sound Localization / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception