Perceived Non-Overlap of Objects in an Audiovisual Stream/Bounce Display

In a stream/bounce display in which two identical visual objects move toward each other, coincide (completely overlap), and then move apart, the objects can be perceived as either streaming through or bouncing off each other. Despite the perceptual ambiguity in this display, the streaming percept is dominant. However, a sound burst presented at the time that the objects coincide facilitates the bouncing percept. Herein, we report a perceptual phenomenon in which the overlap between objects is illusorily perceived as a non-overlap in the stream/bounce display accompanied with sound. In the experiment, the amount of overlap between two objects was systematically manipulated in the presence/absence of a sound. Observers were asked to judge whether the two objects overlapped with each other and then asked whether the objects appeared to stream through or bounce off each other. The results were consistent with those of previous studies showing that sound promoted the bouncing percept. Most importantly, the sound presentation facilitated the perception of a non-overlap between the objects instead of a physical overlap, suggesting that the momentary overlap was inadequately perceived. We discuss the possibility that an abrupt sound temporally interrupts visual processing such as the formation of dynamic object representations

Visual Mislocalization of Moving Objects in an Audiovisual Event.

The present study investigated the influence of an auditory tone on the localization of visual objects in the stream/bounce display (SBD). In this display, two identical visual objects move toward each other, overlap, and then return to their original positions. These objects can be perceived as either streaming through or bouncing off each other. In this study, the closest distance between object centers on opposing trajectories and tone presentation timing (none, 0 ms, ± 90 ms, and ± 390 ms relative to the instant for the closest distance) were manipulated. Observers were asked to judge whether the two objects overlapped with each other and whether the objects appeared to stream through, bounce off each other, or reverse their direction of motion. A tone presented at or around the instant of the objects' closest distance biased judgments toward "non-overlapping," and observers overestimated the physical distance between objects. A similar bias toward direction change judgments (bounce and reverse, not stream judgments) was also observed, which was always stronger than the non-overlapping bias. Thus, these two types of judgments were not always identical. Moreover, another experiment showed that it was unlikely that this observed mislocalization could be explained by other previously known mislocalization phenomena (i.e., representational momentum, the Fröhlich effect, and a turn-point shift). These findings indicate a new example of crossmodal mislocalization, which can be obtained without temporal offsets between audiovisual stimuli. The mislocalization effect is also specific to a more complex stimulus configuration of objects on opposing trajectories, with a tone that is presented simultaneously. The present study promotes an understanding of relatively complex audiovisual interactions beyond simple one-to-one audiovisual stimuli used in previous studies

Results of Experiment 2.

<p>Group mean PSEs for tone conditions in the (a) overlap and (b) directional change judgment tasks. Error bars denote standard errors of the mean (<i>n</i> = 11).</p

DATASET for the paper "Visual mislocalization of moving objects in an audiovisual event"

<div><p>Data from the article titled "Visual mislocalization of moving objects in an audiovisual event" by Kawachi, Y., published in PLOS ONE. </p></div><div><br></div><div><br></div

Modulation of Motion Perception of Ipsilateral Tactile Stimuli Using Sound

We report the modulation of tactile motion perception by presenting static sounds with two alternately and repeatedly presented vibrotactile stimuli for the perception of tactile apparent motion. Previous research on tactile motion perception has used direction judgment tasks for apparent motion that consist of two non-repeating, or more than two repeating stimuli. However, the direction of two repeating apparent motion stimuli has been considered too ambiguous to be judged. The present study shows that the additional presentation of sounds with manipulated timings could help to determine the perceived direction of tactile motion despite the ambiguity in the interpretation of tactile stimuli at ipsilateral locations. Furthermore, we found that there is a limited alternation rate for tactile stimuli that can be used to achieve significant modulation using sound. We relate the temporal properties observed during crossmodal effects in tactile motion perception, to those observed during some other crossmodal phenomena