Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

We investigated whether the crossmodal congruency effect, normally observed in spatial compatibility tasks, would also affect performance on a task based on discriminating stimulus identity (i.e., a non-spatial dimension). Two rhythms were presented to participants' eyes, ears, and/or hands in a 4-alternative rhythm discrimination task. Stimulus identity and stimulus modality were varied orthogonally. When the target and distractor rhythms were presented in different sensory modalities, significant crossmodal congruency effects were observed in all conditions (i.e., performance on the incongruent distractor trials was significantly more error-prone than on the congruent distractor trials). In contrast to the results of previous studies, these crossmodal distractor effects were neither based on the spatial compatibility of the stimuli nor on an abstract semantic matching of stimulus identity, but instead on the identity of the target rhythm. Intriguingly, the magnitude of the crossmodal congruency effects differed as a function of the target modality, but were unaffected by the modality of the distractor.

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.brainres.2010.07.058

Type

Journal article

Journal

Brain Res

Publication Date

01/10/2010

Volume

1354

Pages

113 - 122

Keywords

Adult, Analysis of Variance, Attention, Auditory Perception, Discrimination (Psychology), Humans, Physical Stimulation, Psychomotor Performance, Reaction Time, Touch Perception, Visual Perception