Multimodal versus Unimodal Information Processing of Words

Abstract

Sonarmen are constantly confronted with information presented simultaneously through different sensory modalities. Verbal information is one type of input to which they are exposed. Little is known regarding the effect of undirected attention when verbal information is presented siinultaneously to the auditory and visual modality. The question of interest is how do unimodal and nail timodal presentation conditions differentially affect, performance? FINDINGS The superiority of any particular modality depends upon the task requirements, response demands and the complexity of the stimuli. Multimodal stimulation facilitates the RT of the slower unimodal 'presentation wMle providing little if any facilitation to the faster uniuiod&l approach. APPLICATION Sonarmen are exposed to various types of information. Reports of this study and previous studies have shown that the results are task dependent. Therefore, it is important to determine how different types cf stimuli interact with modes of presentation and affect sonar performance.

Bimodal Reading: Benefits of a Talking Computer for Average and Less Skilled Readers

“…Kinchla (1974) referred to this effect as the redundant signals effect (RSE). The RSE has shown to be a rather robust phenomenon in work with simple stimuli, such as lights and tones (Loveless, Brebner, & Hamilton, 1970) and sonar detection (Halpern & Lantz, 1974;Lewandowski & Kobus, 1989), as well as with more complex stimuli, such as letters (Miller, 1982) and words (Lewandowski, Hursh, & Kobus, 1985;Lewandowski & Kobus, 1993). That is, subjects typically respond more accurately or quickly to redundant bimodal stimuli than to unimodal stimulus presentations.…”

Bimodal Information Processing in a Sonar Task

“…Studies which have compared single and dual-modality presentation conditions on sonar-like tasks have yielded mixed findings (1,(10)(11)(12)(13), although most investigators have concluded that a combined visual and auditory approach should be retained in sonar operation. Recently, Lewandowski and Kobus (14) found that detection threshold was lowered by more than 1.2dB to both visual and auditory targets when they were presented simultaneously rather than separately.…”

“…Some suggest that a response to two redundant stimuli in two modalities is faster than a response to one stimulus in either modality (coactivation) (3,8). Others have stated that reaction time (RT) to redundant bimodal stimuli is shorter than RT to the slower single stimulus, but no shorter than RT to the faster single stimulus (12,15). It appears that the RT results are confounded by the inherent differences between auditory and visual processing time.…”

Bimodal word processing: Speed, accuracy, and memory.

“…For example, found that target detection thresholds were reduced when an equivalent sonar target was concurrently presented in both the visual and auditory channels. Lewandowski, Hursh, and Kobus (1985) extended this finding in an analogous task by presenting words to subjects in either visual or auditory channels, or in both channels.…”

“…Such results have been demonstrated using simple stimuli as lights and tones (Nickerson, 1973) as well as more complex stimuli as sonar signals (Kobus et al, 1986), letters (Miller, 1982), and words (Lewandowski, Hursh, & Kobus, 1985). A long-standing interest in the processing of dual signals has been evidenced by sonar operators and research scientists working with sonar systems.…”