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Does sound affect visual motion change detection?

Staufenbiel, S.M. (2009) Does sound affect visual motion change detection?

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Abstract:The bachelorthesis regarding audiovisual integration showed that the “pip and pop”- effect, which is an illusion of a visual target change popping out of an array with distractor stimuli when the target change is accompanied by a short auditory sound, can be applied to a search task regarding moving stimuli. Until now, this effect had only been demonstrated in research using a search task regarding the orientation of stimuli. Behavioral and neural findings from other experiments led to the assumption that the “pip and pop” effect could be replicated regarding moving stimuli. The findings of the bachelorthesis are that a short, static sound with no information on the location or identity of the target, presented at the moment at which one moving stimulus among moving distractor stimuli changes direction makes the target pop out, resulting in a more efficient search in sound present trials in comparison to performance in sound absent trials. For the bachelorthesis, two experiments were conducted in the university laboratory to collect behavioral data from participants. Overall, 27 students participated and received each one credit point for their participation. Experiment 1 showed that participants were able to observe a higher number of objects in the sound present condition than in the sound absent condition while still answering correctly. This conclusion was drawn by means of a tracking algorithm adjusting the dynamic number of stimuli displayed to the performance of each participant. In Experiment 2, participants’ individual mean of number of objects were computed in a dynamic test phase, using a tracking algorithm to adjust the number of objects to the individual performance. These numbers of objects were used in a static test phase, demonstrating that participants scored significantly higher on accuracy and sensitivity in the sound present trials than in the sound absent trials. By means of sensitivity measures, the possibility was ruled out that the mere presence of a sound biased participants’ responses. Although further research needs to be conducted to control for the limitations of this study, the present findings contribute to the research of audiovisual integration and the influence of attention
Item Type:Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:77 psychology
Programme:Psychology BSc (56604)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/59367
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