Higher-Order Cognition Does Not Affect Multisensory Distractor Processing

Abstract

Multisensory processing is required for the perception of the majority of everyday objects and events. In the case of irrelevant stimuli, the multisensory processing of features is widely assumed to be modulated by attention. In the present study, we investigated whether the processing of audiovisual distractors is also modulated by higher-order cognition. Participants fixated a visual distractor viewed via a centrally-placed mirror and responded to a laterally-presented audiovisual target. Critically, a distractor tone was presented from the same location as the mirror, while the visual distractor feature was presented at an occluded location, visible only indirectly via mirror reflection. Consequently, it appeared as though the visual and auditory features were presented from the same location though, in fact, they actually originated from different locations. Nevertheless, the results still revealed that the visual and auditory distractor features were processed together just as in the control condition, in which the audiovisual distractor features were both actually presented from fixation. Taken together, these results suggest that the processing of irrelevant multisensory information is not influenced by higher-order cognition.

When irrelevant information helps: Extending the Eriksen-flanker task into a multisensory world

“…In subsequent studies, we explored the relevance of the attentional set in multisensory selection situations (Jensen, Merz, Spence, & Frings, 2019a). We further observed that higher order cognition did not affect multisensory distractor processing, seemingly contrasting with the evidence that has been obtained from the tactile modality (Merz, Jensen, Burau, Spence, & Frings, 2020). This underlines the importance of investigating truly multisensory selection situations as evidence from strictly unisensory or crossmodal task setting might not easily be transferred to a multisensory situation.…”