Interference of unrelated visual object in spatial decision of sound source: Cross modal attention research in a driving situation
Poster Presentation

Young-hyun Park
Dpt. of Psychology, Yonsei University

Kwang-hee Han
Dpt. of Psychology, Yonsei University

     Abstract ID Number: 49
     Full text: Not available
     Last modified: May 30, 2007
     Presentation date: 07/07/2007 10:00 AM in Quad Maclauren Hall
     (View Schedule)

Abstract
Contrary to the interest of crossmodal cueing effect, we focused to the invalid (interfering) effect comparing to the neutral (no cue) condition. While driving, drivers generally attend themselves to the front, occasionally keeping a sharp look-out through the side or rear-view mirror, once in a while attention draws to a sound source. If a sound comes from the left-back position, drivers tend to look at the left side mirror, and vice versa. However, when a driver cannot look at the corresponding side mirror in time by visual interference, it is possible to be led to an accident. Verifying this hypothesis, we built the natural settings by adding the speed maintenance task to the traditional cueing paradigm for giving a cognitive load to participants and forcing the participants to fixate their attention to the center of the screen as a fixation point. And participants had to locate the sound source ignoring the visual stimulus. Sound was displayed by the speaker set up to the left or right back with a bus appearing in the peripheral area of the screen. Results showed that reaction time was longer and error rate was significantly higher in the invalid condition than the neutral condition.