title: Changes in sensory dominance during childhood: converging evidence from the colavita effect and the sound-induced flash illusion.
abstract: In human adults, visual dominance emerges in several multisensory tasks. In children, auditory dominance has been reported up to 4 years of age. To establish when sensory dominance changes during development, 41 children (6-7, 9-10, and 11-12 years) were tested on the Colavita task (Experiment 1) and 32 children (6-7, 9-10, and 11-12 years) were tested on the sound-induced flash illusion (Experiment 2). In both experiments, an auditory dominance emerged in 6- to 7-year-old children compared to older children. Adult-like visual dominance started to emerge from 9 to 10 years of age, and consolidated in 11- to 12-year-old children. These findings show that auditory dominance persists up to 6 years, but switches to visual dominance during the first school years.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biopsychology and Neuropsychology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany. elena.nava@uni-hamburg.de
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nava
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pavani
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007088:Illusions; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011581:Psychological Tests; D013016:Sound; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*