Audiovisual crossmodal cuing effects in front and rear space.

Jae Lee,Charles Spence

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01086

Abstract

The participants in the present study had to make speeded elevation discrimination responses to visual targets presented to the left or right of central fixation following the presentation of a task-irrelevant auditory cue on either the same or opposite side. In Experiment 1, the cues were presented from in front of the participants (from the same azimuthal positions as the visual targets). A standard crossmodal exogenous spatial cuing effect was observed, with participants responding significantly faster in the elevation discrimination task to visual targets when both the auditory cues and the visual targets were presented on the same side. Experiment 2 replicated the exogenous spatial cuing effect for frontal visual targets following both front and rear auditory cues. The results of Experiment 3 demonstrated that the participants had little difficulty in correctly discriminating the location from which the sounds were presented. Thus, taken together, the results of the three experiments reported here demonstrate that the exact co-location of auditory cues and visual targets is not necessary to attract spatial attention. Implications of these results for the design of real-world warning signals are discussed.

Highlights

Our senses are constantly bombarded by information from the surroundings, and it is crucial for our brains to know which stimuli should be focused on, and which can safely be ignored
The following trial data were excluded from the subsequent analyses: incorrect responses, responses immediately following an incorrect response, and reaction times (RTs) that fell outside the range between 150 and 1,500 ms
These results replicate those reported some years ago by Spence and Driver (1997; see Spence et al, 2004 for a review). Another interesting result to emerge from the analysis of the data from our first experiment was that the magnitudes of the crossmodal cuing effects were similar regardless of the type of auditory cue that preceded the onset of the visual target

Summary

Introduction

Our senses are constantly bombarded by information from the surroundings, and it is crucial for our brains to know which stimuli should be focused on, and which can safely be ignored. The majority of the research on this topic has been focused on exogenous (involuntary) orienting rather than endogenous (voluntary) orienting (see Spence and Driver, 2004; Wright and Ward, 2008, for reviews). In the case of endogenous spatial orienting, attention is thought to be “pushed” to the expected target location (e.g., following the presentation of an informative central arrow cue at fixation), whereas in the case of exogenous orienting, attention is “pulled” to the location of a salient peripheral cue (Spence and Driver, 1994, 2004; Wright and Ward, 2008).

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion