CogSci 2025

•

July 31, 2025

•

San Francisco, United States

keywords:

developmental analysis

cognitive development

sensory processing

psychology

Multisensory processing often results in facilitation and/or interference effects, yet the mechanisms remain unclear. The two reported experiments used a Stroop-like task to examine how congruent, incongruent, and irrelevant information presented in one sensory modality (e.g., visual) affects processing and responding in a different modality (e.g., auditory). Across two experiments, adults (E1) and 5-year-olds (E2) were presented with pictures and sounds, and they had to determine if what they saw or heard was an animal or vehicle. Experiment 1 with adults showed evidence of both facilitation on congruent trials and interference on incongruent trials, with unattended visual stimuli having a larger effect on auditory processing than vice versa. Results in 5-year-olds were slightly more symmetrical than adults but there was no evidence that auditory input dominated visual processing. Possible mechanisms underlying these effects are discussed.

Downloads

Paper

Next from CogSci 2025

 Beyond words and actions: what implicit measures reveal in preschoolers’ performance on the RMTS task
poster

Beyond words and actions: what implicit measures reveal in preschoolers’ performance on the RMTS task

CogSci 2025

+1
Antonia Goetz and 3 other authors

31 July 2025

Similar lecture

Semantic Congruence Across Sensory Modalities
poster

Semantic Congruence Across Sensory Modalities

CogSci 2022

Dr. Susan Geffen

29 July 2022