Selection for Action II: Multisensory Selection

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Christian Frings
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2011 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 204084949

Given the vast amount of information that is likely being processed by our brains at any moment, one basic prerequisite in order to be able to perform everyday actions is the selection of only that information that is currently relevant for further processing (Allport, 1987). So far, selection has typically been investigated within a single sensory modality, primarily within vision and audition. Selection has rarely been addressed within the tactile modality. Therefore, in the first phase of the current project, we established a new theoretical framework concerning distractor processing in touch. Specifically, we investigated whether the established finding that Gestalt grouping influences visual perception can also be applied to tactile information processing. Furthermore, we tested the aftereffects of tactile distractor processing in spatial tasks. Importantly, our findings highlight that the same pattern of behavioural results may be attributable to different cognitive processes in vision, audition, and touch.Yet, humans are multisensory creatures. Over the last decade or so, the study of multisensory perception has become increasingly popular (see Calvert, Spence, & Stein, 2004; Stein, 2012). Furthermore, selection between the modalities and the constraints on crossmodal spatial attention have also been examined (Spence & Driver, 2004). Importantly, crossmodal studies have focused on the processing of relevant information, so insights on the processing of multisensory distractors are lacking. The goal of the present project is therefore to investigate distractor processing from a multisensory perspective. To this end, in the first phase of the project we have already started to show that unisensory tactile selection is influenced by whether or not vision is available. Nonetheless, to the best of our knowledge, the selection of multisensory stimuli has not yet been investigated. In the second phase of the project, our goal will be to further our understanding of the selection of those stimuli having visual, auditory, and tactile features. We aim to separately investigate (1) multisensory selection in tasks in which the impact of spatial attention is controlled for (Experimental series A) as well as (2) multisensory selection in spatial tasks (i.e., where selection is location-based; Experimental series B). Taken together, the renewal project will reveal insights into those processes that are at work when we select relevant multisensory objects against a background of irrelevant ones, as we frequently do in everyday life. It will thus complement the literature on distractor processing, leading to a more holistic understanding of selection in a multisensory environment.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: United Kingdom
• Co-Investigator: Professor Charles Spence, Ph.D.