Phase 1Participants trained to associate two pairs of kaleidoscopes each with a single arbitrary sound. Training involved 20 repetitions of each pair (10 views per object).

Arbitrary Sounds Facilitate Visual Search for Congruent ObjectsJacob Zweig1, Satoru Suzuki1,2, Marcia Grabowecky1,2

Northwestern University, Department of Psychology1 and Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program2, Evanston, IL NIH R01EY021184

IntroductionMultisensory correspondences can enhance the detection, localization, and identification of stimuli when correspondences are in agreement across modalities1,2,3.1) Can arbitrary correspondences between sounds and objects be rapidly learned?2) Can these learned multisensory correspondences facilitate visual search for the location of target kaleidoscopes despite containing no spatial information?

Arbitrary learned sounds can facilitate visual search for congruent objects.

Novel multisensory associations can be formed through training, and are likely to be strengthened through repeated exposure to spatial and/or temporal coincidence.

Response times on learned sound trials were significantly faster than unlearned sound trials (N=13).

Phase 2Participants selected the kaleidoscope that matched the presented sound until criterion of 25 consecutive correct responses was met.

Visual Search display appeared synchronously with the onset of one of two sounds.

Participants responded by indicating the quadrant in which the one of the two potential target objects was present.

Three sounds were counterbalanced across participants (2 used for training, 1 for unlearned sound during search)

Training

Results

Visual Search

Conclusions

References

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Overall ANOVA: [F(1,12) = 5.46, p < .05, η2 = 0.31].Accuracy did not significantly differ across conditions: t(12) = .07, p =.95No evidence of a speed-accuracy tradeoff: t(12) = 1.61, p=.14

1.Iordanescu, L., Guzman-Martinez, E., Grabowecky, M., & Suzuki,(2008). Characteristic sounds facilitate visual search. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15(3), 548–554. doi:10.3758/PBR.15.3.548

2.Iordanescu, L., Grabowecky, M., Franconeri, S., Theeuwes, J., & Suzuki, S. (2010). Characteristic sounds make you look at target objects more quickly. Attention, perception & psychophysics, 72(7), 1736–41. doi:10.3758/APP.72.7.1736

3.Chen, Y.-C., & Spence, C. (2010). When hearing the bark helps to identify the dog: semantically-congruent sounds modulate the identification of masked pictures. Cognition, 114(3), 389–404. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2009.10.012

Sound A Sound B

Participants were prompted to search for one of two

possible targets.