The effect of visual context on the identification of ambiguous environmental sounds.
The influence of the specificity of the visual context on the identification of environmental sounds (i.e., product sounds) was investigated. Two different visual context types (i.e., scene and object contexts)-which varied in the specificity of the semantic information-and a control condition (meaningless images) were employed. A contextual priming paradigm was used. Identification accuracy and response times were determined in two context conditions and one control condition. The results suggest that visual context has a positive effect on sound identification. In addition, two types of product sounds (location-specific and event-specific sounds) were observed which exhibited different sensitivities to scene and object contexts. Furthermore, the results suggest that conceptual interactions exist between an object and a context that do not share the same perceptual domain. Therefore, context should be regarded as a network of conceptually associated items in memory.
Ozcan
Elif
E
Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, 2628 CE, Delft, The Netherlands. e.ozcan@tudelft.nl
van Egmond
René
R
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D013016:Sound; D013017:Sound Localization; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult