audiovisual prior entry
Poster

Massimiliano Zampini
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, England.

David I. Shore
Department of Psychology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

Charles Spence
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, England.

     Abstract ID Number: 121
     Full text: Not available
     Last modified: May 20, 2003

Abstract
Many researchers have argued that attending to a particular sensory modality speeds up the perception of stimuli presented in that modality, the so-called phenomenon of multisensory prior entry. However, previous studies have provided controversial results due to a number of methodological confounds and ambiguities. By eliminating these confounds, Spence et al. (2001) were able to provide the strongest evidence to date for the existence of a multisensory prior entry effect, at least between vision and touch. In the present study, we extended this research by reporting a series of experiments in which auditory and visual stimuli were presented from either the left and/or right of fixation at varying stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). Participants were instructed to direct their attention to audition, to vision, or to divide their attention equally between the two modalities, while reporting either ?Which side came first/second??, or else whether the two stimuli appeared to be simultaneous or not. Our results provide unequivocal support for the existence of audiovisual prior entry, and are compared to Spence et al.?s visuotactile prior entry findings. We also discuss the potential influence of changes in the response dimension on both temporal perception and performance.

Reference
Spence, C., Shore, D. I., & Klein, R. M. (2001). Multisensory prior entry. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130, 799-832.