Auditory, visual, and auditory-visual processing performance in typically developing children: modality independence versus dependence.

The study was carried out to determine whether cross-modal interactions occur during processing of auditory and/or visual signals that require separation/closure, integration, and duration pattern perception in typically developing children. Thirty typically developing children were evaluated on three auditory processing tests (speech-in-noise test in Indian-English, dichotic-consonant vowel test, and duration pattern test) that tapped separation/closure, integration and duration pattern perception. The children were also evaluated on the visual and auditory-visual analogues of the auditory tests. Differences in modality were found in each of the processes that were tested. The performance when the auditory and visual modalities were tested simultaneously was significantly higher than the auditory or visual modality for tests that involved separation/closure and integration. In contrast, scores on the analogous auditory-visual duration pattern test were significantly higher than the auditory test but not the visual analogous test. Further, the scores of the auditory modality were significantly poorer than the visual modality for separation/closure and duration patterning but not for integration. Findings of the study indicate that performance on higher level processing varies depending on the modality that is assessed and supports the presence of cross-modality interactions.