Crossmodal facilitation effect according to the functional region of space and the spatial predictability
Poster Presentation

Ju Hwan Lee
Department of Psychology, Yonsei University, Seoul, KOREA

Kwang Hee Han
Department of Psychology, Yonsei University, Seoul, KOREA

     Abstract ID Number: 31
     Full text: Not available
     Last modified: May 30, 2007
     Presentation date: 07/05/2007 10:00 AM in Quad Maclauren Hall
     (View Schedule)

Abstract
Most of animals, including humans, could survive in the environment by processing valuable information through multiple sensory channels. In particular, it is frequently necessary to process the valuable information in the world, such as moving objects and the rapid change of brightness, temperature, or air pressure by two or more modalities. In this perspective, various studies show the evidences that the multimodal presentation enhances the latency and accuracy relatively to a single modality in information processing. To investigate spatial issue of this facilitation, this study examined the distinction between extrapersonal and peripersonal resource location of crossmodal cue and visual target, namely, the functional region of space in the applied context. In the two experiments adjusting spatial predictability (i.e. non-predictive or predictive), extrapersonal condition is an auditory display condition from speakers near to visual target and peripersonal condition is an auditory display from headphone far from visual target. The verification about the difference in the facilitation effect of multisensory stimuli presentation depended to the congruency of the functional region of space suggests some practical implications in the display methods of the applied settings. In addition, the presentation timing of a crossmodal stimulus to maximize the multimodal facilitation in the detection and identification tasks on the spatial location of visual target may be an important issue. The magnitude of facilitation effect was assessed in the simultaneous or asynchronous presentation with two intervals (SOA 150ms & 500ms) between crossmodal stimulus and visual target. In conclusion, in the extra- and peripersonal space both, the difference depended to the congruency of the functional region of space is small and the presentation timing of a crossmodal stimulus should be brief to maximize the facilitation when the cues are non-predictive, but a long interval cues (e.g. SOA 500ms) are more effective when the cues are predictive.