Benefits of stimulus congruency for multisensory facilitation of visual learning.
BACKGROUND
Studies of perceptual learning have largely focused on unisensory stimuli. However, multisensory interactions are ubiquitous in perception, even at early processing stages, and thus can potentially play a role in learning. Here, we examine the effect of auditory-visual congruency on visual learning.


RESULTS
Subjects were trained over five days on a visual motion coherence detection task with either congruent audiovisual, or incongruent audiovisual stimuli. Comparing performance on visual-only trials, we find that training with congruent audiovisual stimuli produces significantly better learning than training with incongruent audiovisual stimuli or with only visual stimuli.


CONCLUSIONS
This advantage from stimulus congruency during training suggests that the benefits of multisensory training may result from audiovisual interactions at a perceptual rather than cognitive level.
Kim
Robyn S
RS
Department of Psychology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Seitz
Aaron R
AR
Shams
Ladan
L
D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D009038:Motion; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014785:Vision, Ocular