Abstract
Visual stimuli often dominate nonvisual stimuli during multisensory perception. Evidence suggests higher cognitive processes prioritize visual over nonvisual stimuli during divided attention. Visual stimuli should thus be disproportionally distracting when processing incongruent cross-sensory stimulus pairs. We tested this assumption by comparing visual processing with olfaction, a “primitive” sensory channel that detects potentially hazardous chemicals by alerting attention. Behavioral and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were assessed in a bimodal object categorization task with congruent or incongruent odor–picture pairings and a delayed auditory target that indicated whether olfactory or visual cues should be categorized. For congruent pairings, accuracy was higher for visual compared to olfactory decisions. However, for incongruent pairings, reaction times (RTs) were faster for olfactory decisions. Behavioral results suggested that incongruent odors interfered more with visual decisions, thereby providing evidence for an “olfactory dominance” effect. Categorization of incongruent pairings engendered a late “slow wave” ERP effect. Importantly, this effect had a later amplitude peak and longer latency during visual decisions, likely reflecting additional categorization effort for visual stimuli in the presence of incongruent odors. In sum, contrary to what might be inferred from theories of “visual dominance,” incongruent odors may in fact uniquely attract mental processing resources during perceptual incongruence.
Highlights
It is commonly assumed that visual impressions have an especially important role in human perception and cognition
When attention is divided between visual and auditory channels, cortical activity in terms of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) indicates that response selection—a higher cognitive process only indirectly related to perceptual processing—is impaired for auditory but not for visual decisions (Falkenstein et al 1991; Hohnsbein et al 1991)
We investigated the relationship between reaction times (RTs) and single-trial mean ERP amplitudes in the P300 and the late positive slow wave (PSW) time windows, again using both Bayesian and frequentist linear mixed-effect models
Summary
It is commonly assumed that visual impressions have an especially important role in human perception and cognition This notion has a long history; for example, Aristotle wrote that vision “in its direct effects, is the superior sense” (Aristotle 2010). In a pioneering study, Colavita (1974) found that auditory stimuli often are neglected when presented concurrently with visual stimuli. This effect that has been replicated in more recent studies (e.g., Sinnett et al 2007; Koppen and Spence 2007a). Some studies have found auditory or tactile stimuli to dominate visual stimuli either under highly specific conditions (e.g., Shams et al 2000; Ernst and Banks 2002; Repp and Penel 2002; Ngo et al 2011; Robinson and Sloutsky 2013), in children (e.g., Robinson and Sloutsky 2004) or in specific subpopulations (Li et al 2019)
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