Visual attention modulates audiovisual speech perception

K. Tiippana, T. S. Andersen, M. Sams

AbstractSpeech perception is audiovisual, as demonstrated by the McGurk effect in which discrepant visual speech alters the auditory speech percept. We studied whether endogenous visual attention influences audiovisual speech perception by measuring the McGurk effect in two conditions. In the baseline condition, attention was focused on the talking face. In the distracted attention condition, subjects ignored the face and attended a visual distractor which was a leaf moving across the face. Since the McGurk effect was weaker in the latter condition, visual attention modulated audiovisual speech perception. This modulation may occur at an early, unimodal processing stage, or it may be due to changes at or after the stage where auditory and visual information is integrated. We investigated this issue by conventional statistical testing, and by fitting the Fuzzy Logical Model of Perception [Massaro, 1998] to the results. Since the two methods suggested different interpretations, the stage at which the attentional modulation occurs still remains unresolved.
TypeJournal paper [With referee]
JournalEuropean Journal of Cognitive Psychology
Year2004    Vol. 16    No. 3    pp. 457-472
BibTeX data [bibtex]
IMM Group(s)Other