title: Taking a call is facilitated by the multisensory processing of smartphone vibrations, sounds, and flashes.
abstract: Many electronic devices that we use in our daily lives provide inputs that need to be processed and integrated by our senses. For instance, ringing, vibrating, and flashing indicate incoming calls and messages in smartphones. Whether the presentation of multiple smartphone stimuli simultaneously provides an advantage over the processing of the same stimuli presented in isolation has not yet been investigated. In this behavioral study we examined multisensory processing between visual (V), tactile (T), and auditory (A) stimuli produced by a smartphone. Unisensory V, T, and A stimuli as well as VA, AT, VT, and trisensory VAT stimuli were presented in random order. Participants responded to any stimulus appearance by touching the smartphone screen using the stimulated hand (Experiment 1), or the non-stimulated hand (Experiment 2). We examined violations of the race model to test whether shorter response times to multisensory stimuli exceed probability summations of unisensory stimuli. Significant violations of the race model, indicative of multisensory processing, were found for VA stimuli in both experiments and for VT stimuli in Experiment 1. Across participants, the strength of this effect was not associated with prior learning experience and daily use of smartphones. This indicates that this integration effect, similar to what has been previously reported for the integration of semantically meaningless stimuli, could involve bottom-up driven multisensory processes. Our study demonstrates for the first time that multisensory processing of smartphone stimuli facilitates taking a call. Thus, research on multisensory integration should be taken into consideration when designing electronic devices such as smartphones.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, St. Hedwig Hospital, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Pomper
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, St. Hedwig Hospital, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Jana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brincker
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, St. Hedwig Hospital, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Harwood
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, St. Hedwig Hospital, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Prikhodko
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, St. Hedwig Hospital, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Senkowski
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D040421:Cell Phone; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time; D012677:Sensation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult