Citation

Keetels M, Vroomen J. J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform. 2011; 37(3): 699-708.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/a0020564

PMID

20854000

Abstract

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. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Language: en