Department of Psychology, University of Trier, D-54286 Trier, Germany.
Crossmodal Research Laboratory, Department of Experimental Psychology, Anna Watts Building, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, UK.
Multisens Res. 2020 Sep 18;34(4):351-364. doi: 10.1163/22134808-bja10013.
Multisensory processing is required for the perception of the majority of everyday objects and events. In the case of irrelevant stimuli, the multisensory processing of features is widely assumed to be modulated by attention. In the present study, we investigated whether the processing of audiovisual distractors is also modulated by higher-order cognition. Participants fixated a visual distractor viewed via a centrally-placed mirror and responded to a laterally-presented audiovisual target. Critically, a distractor tone was presented from the same location as the mirror, while the visual distractor feature was presented at an occluded location, visible only indirectly via mirror reflection. Consequently, it appeared as though the visual and auditory features were presented from the same location though, in fact, they actually originated from different locations. Nevertheless, the results still revealed that the visual and auditory distractor features were processed together just as in the control condition, in which the audiovisual distractor features were both actually presented from fixation. Taken together, these results suggest that the processing of irrelevant multisensory information is not influenced by higher-order cognition.
多感官处理对于感知大多数日常物体和事件是必需的。在不相关刺激的情况下，广泛认为特征的多感官处理受到注意力的调节。在本研究中，我们调查了高阶认知是否也调节了视听干扰物的处理。参与者注视通过中央放置的镜子观看的视觉干扰物，并对横向呈现的视听目标做出反应。关键的是，从与镜子相同的位置呈现干扰音，而视觉干扰物特征则在遮挡位置呈现，仅通过镜子反射间接可见。因此，尽管实际上它们来自不同的位置，但视觉和听觉特征似乎是从同一个位置呈现的。然而，结果仍然表明，视觉和听觉干扰物特征是一起被处理的，就像在控制条件下一样，在控制条件下，视听干扰物特征实际上都是从注视点呈现的。总的来说，这些结果表明，无关多感官信息的处理不受高阶认知的影响。
