The Duration of a Co-Occurring Sound Modulates Visual Detection Performance in Humans

Benjamin de Haas, Roberto Cecere, Harriet Cullen, Jon Driver and Vincenzo Romei

PLOS ONE, 2013, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Background: The duration of sounds can affect the perceived duration of co-occurring visual stimuli. However, it is unclear whether this is limited to amodal processes of duration perception or affects other non-temporal qualities of visual perception. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here, we tested the hypothesis that visual sensitivity - rather than only the perceived duration of visual stimuli - can be affected by the duration of co-occurring sounds. We found that visual detection sensitivity (d’) for unimodal stimuli was higher for stimuli of longer duration. Crucially, in a cross-modal condition, we replicated previous unimodal findings, observing that visual sensitivity was shaped by the duration of co-occurring sounds. When short visual stimuli (∼24 ms) were accompanied by sounds of matching duration, visual sensitivity was decreased relative to the unimodal visual condition. However, when the same visual stimuli were accompanied by longer auditory stimuli (∼60–96 ms), visual sensitivity was increased relative to the performance for ∼24 ms auditory stimuli. Across participants, this sensitivity enhancement was observed within a critical time window of ∼60–96 ms. Moreover, the amplitude of this effect correlated with visual sensitivity enhancement found for longer lasting visual stimuli across participants. Conclusions/Significance: Our findings show that the duration of co-occurring sounds affects visual perception; it changes visual sensitivity in a similar way as altering the (actual) duration of the visual stimuli does.

Date: 2013
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0054789

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0054789

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