Abstract
Stein, London, Wilkinson, and Price (1996) reported the presence of cross-modal enhancement of perceived visual intensity: Participants tended to rate weak lights as brighter when accompanied by a concurrent pulse of white noise than when presented alone. In the present study, two methods were used to determine whether the enhancement reflects an early-stage sensory process or a later-stage decisional process, such as a response bias. First, enhancement was eliminated when the noise accompanied the light on only 25% versus 50% of the trials. Second, enhancement was absent when tested with a paired-comparison method. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the sound-induced enhancement in judgments of brightness reflects a response bias, rather than an early sensory process—that is, enhancement is the result of a relatively late decisional process.
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This research was supported by Grant DC02752-03 from the National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders to L.E.M.
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Odgaard, E.C., Arieh, Y. & Marks, L.E. Cross-modal enhancement of perceived brightness: Sensory interaction versus response bias. Perception & Psychophysics 65, 123–132 (2003). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03194789
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03194789