Sound affects the speed of visual processing.
The authors examined the effects of a task-irrelevant sound on visual processing. Participants were presented with revolving clocks at or around central fixation and reported the hand position of a target clock at the time an exogenous cue (1 clock turning red) or an endogenous cue (a line pointing toward 1 of the clocks) was presented. A spatially irrelevant sound presented 100 ms before the cue speeded visual latency when compared with a sound presented 100 ms after the cue. The effect of the sound was larger the farther the target was from fixation, and it was larger for endogenous than exogenous cues. A visual temporal warning signal had different effects on perceptual latency. These results demonstrate that an asynchronous sound can shift the perceived time of occurrence of a visual cue (temporal ventriloquism) and speed the velocity of the attentional shift toward the target. Sounds thus have multiple effects on visual perception.
Keetels
Mirjam
M
Department of Psychology, Tilburg University, The Netherlands.
Vroomen
Jean
J
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001288:Attention; D001307:Auditory Perception; D003463:Cues; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D012016:Reference Values; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D013997:Time Factors; D013998:Time Perception; D014796:Visual Perception