Audiovisual semantic congruency effect with onomatopoeia

It has been reported that when a congruent natural sound precedes briefly presented visual stimuli, it promotes performance in psychophysics detection tasks. Onomatopoeias refer to words that phonetically mimic or suggest actual sounds. Onomatopoeic words are a form of sound symbolism and are frequently used in Japanese language. In this study, we examined whether the presentation of spoken Japanese onomatopoeia to Japanese native-speakers results in visual detection sensitivity changes. Results indicate that when onomatopoeias are presented 227 ms before a visual stimulus, they have a modulatory audiovisual effect. This effect is closer to the results observed with natural sounds than spoken words, with d’ being lower for onomatopoeias when compared with natural sounds. Such suggests that Japanese spoken onomatopoeias may be processed in a manner that is closer to natural sounds than spoken words and points to behavioral consequences of sound symbolism

Effects of an Additional Sequence of Color Stimuli on Visuomotor Sequence Learning

Through practice, people are able to integrate a secondary sequence (e.g., a stimulus-based sequence) into a primary sequence (e.g., a response-based sequence), but it is still controversial whether the integrated sequences lead to better learning than only the primary sequence. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the effects of a sequence that integrated space and color sequences on early and late learning phases (corresponding to effector-independent and effector-dependent learning, respectively) and how the effects differed in the integrated and primary sequences in each learning phase. In the task, the participants were required to learn a sequence of button presses using trial-and-error and to perform the sequence successfully for 20 trials (m × n task). First, in the baseline task, all participants learned a non-colored sequence, in which the response button always turned red. Then, in the learning task, the participants were assigned to two groups: a colored sequence group (i.e., space and color) or a non-colored sequence group (i.e., space). In the colored sequence, the response button turned a pre-determined color and the participants were instructed to attend to the sequences of both location and color as much as they could. The results showed that the participants who performed the colored sequence acquired the correct button presses of the sequence earlier, but showed a slower mean performance time than those who performed the non-colored sequence. Moreover, the slower performance time in the colored sequence group remained in a subsequent transfer task in which the spatial configurations of the buttons were vertically mirrored from the learning task. These results indicated that if participants explicitly attended to both the spatial response sequence and color stimulus sequence at the same time, they could develop their spatial representations of the sequence earlier (i.e., early development of the effector-independent learning), but might not be able to enhance their motor representations of the sequence (i.e., late development of the effector-dependent learning). Thus, the undeveloped effector-dependent representations in the colored sequence group directly led to a long performance time in the transfer sequence

Judgments of Facial Attractiveness as A Dynamic Combination of Internal/External Parts

Although the importance of facial attractiveness has been widely researched, how attractiveness of internal/external facial parts and whole interacts in a time course of attractiveness judgment is still unclear. In our research, visual information integration in the facial attractiveness judgment has been investigated in a series of psychological experiments in which presentation of facial images to be evaluated their attractiveness was constrained spatially and/or temporally. Attractiveness evaluation of briefly-presented facial images demonstrated that 1) contribution of the eyes to the whole facial attractiveness judgment remains high even after short exposure duration as 20 milliseconds to the face, while contribution of other facial parts changed over time, and 2) either the gaze of the face is directed to or averted from the evaluator affected the dynamic integration of facial parts information to the judgments of whole facial attractiveness. Different experiments examining the influence of external feature on the perceived facial attractiveness revealed the mutual, but not symmetrical influence between facial attractiveness and hair attractiveness. These findings together suggest the dynamic feature of facial attractiveness judgment where information from internal/external features is integrated over the time while it is affected by social cue such as gaze direction of the face

Judgments of Facial Attractiveness as A Dynamic Combination of Internal/External Parts

Although the importance of facial attractiveness has been widely researched, how attractiveness of internal/external facial parts and whole interacts in a time course of attractiveness judgment is still unclear. In our research, visual information integration in the facial attractiveness judgment has been investigated in a series of psychological experiments in which presentation of facial images to be evaluated their attractiveness was constrained spatially and/or temporally. Attractiveness evaluation of briefly-presented facial images demonstrated that 1) contribution of the eyes to the whole facial attractiveness judgment remains high even after short exposure duration as 20 milliseconds to the face, while contribution of other facial parts changed over time, and 2) either the gaze of the face is directed to or averted from the evaluator affected the dynamic integration of facial parts information to the judgments of whole facial attractiveness. Different experiments examining the influence of external feature on the perceived facial attractiveness revealed the mutual, but not symmetrical influence between facial attractiveness and hair attractiveness. These findings together suggest the dynamic feature of facial attractiveness judgment where information from internal/external features is integrated over the time while it is affected by social cue such as gaze direction of the face

People with higher autistic traits show stronger binding for color-shape associations

Non-synesthetes exhibit a tendency to associate specific shapes with particular colors (i.e., circle-red, triangle-yellow, and square-blue). Such color-shape associations (CSAs) could potentially affect the feature binding of colors and shapes, thus resulting in people reporting more binding errors in the case of incongruent, rather than congruent, colored-shape pairs. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit atypical sensory processing and impaired multisensory integration. Here, we examined whether autistic traits (Autism-Spectrum Quotient; AQ) influence the strength of color-shape associations, as evidenced by the occurrence of binding errors in incongruent minus congruent conditions. Participants took part in an experiment designed to reveal binding errors induced by incongruent and congruent colored-shape pairs, and completed the Japanese version of the AQ score. The results revealed a significant correlation between AQ scores and occurrence of binding errors when participants were presented with the circle-red and triangle-yellow CSAs: That is, individuals with higher autistic traits tend to make more binding errors in incongruent minus congruent colored-shape pairs, indicating a stronger binding of circle-red and triangle-yellow associations. These results therefore suggest that autistic traits play a role in forming color-shape associations, shedding light on the nature of both color-shape associations and autistic perception

Crossmodal correspondences between visual features and tastes in preschoolers: an exploratory study

IntroductionAdults possess a natural inclination to associate sensory cues derived from distinct modalities, such as the pairing of sweet with pink. However, studies exploring crossmodal correspondences in children, particularly in the sensory pairing of visual features and tastes, are scant, leaving unanswered questions regarding the developmental trajectory of crossmodal correspondences. The present study investigates whether Japanese preschool children demonstrate specific biases in shape–color, shape–taste, and color–taste associations.MethodsIn a series of in-person experiments, 92 children between 3 to 6 years of age completed matching tasks utilizing paper stimuli.ResultsChildren exhibit crossmodal correspondences in shape-color (circle-red and asymmetrical star-yellow), shape–taste (triangle-salty and circle-sweet), and color–taste (yellow-sour, black-bitter, and pink-sweet) associations. Moreover, children’s choices are not influenced by their individual preferences.DiscussionThe crossmodal correspondences observed in this study have been observed in previous research on adults from the same (Japanese) culture, although adults showed more crossmodal correspondences than the children in this study (e.g., pink-circle, triangle-sour, and green-bitter). Thus, while some crossmodal correspondences emerge during childhood, others may require additional time to develop, thereby highlighting the importance of understanding the cognitive mechanisms underlying crossmodal correspondences from an ontogenic perspective