Sound can prolong the visible persistence of moving visual objects.
An abrupt change in a visual attribute (size) of apparently moving visual stimuli extends the time the changed stimuli is visible even after its physical termination (visible persistence). In this study, we show that elongation of visible persistence is enhanced by an abrupt change in an attribute (frequency) of the sounds presented along with the size-changed apparently moving visual stimuli. This auditory effect disappears when sounds are not associated with the visual stimuli. These results suggest that auditory attribute change can contribute to the establishment of a new object representation and that object-level audio-visual interactions can occur in motion perception.
Hidaka
Souta
S
Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8576, Japan. hidaka@rikkyo.ac.jp
Teramoto
Wataru
W
Gyoba
Jiro
J
Suzuki
Yôiti
Y
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D006801:Humans; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D013016:Sound