Effects of auditory pitch on vertical line bisection: bottom-up or top-down processing?

U Leonards, C Lawn, CR Frankish

Research output: Contribution to conferenceConference Abstractpeer-review

Abstract

Auditory pitch is known to influence visual spatial localisation (Mudd, 1963 Journal of Exper- imental Psychology 66 347 ^ 352). Here, we investigated whether a similar effect is found for visual spatial attention. Subjects bisected vertical lines presented on a touch-screen monitor at differ- ent spatial locations while touch coordinates and eye movements were recorded. Lines were presented on their own or simultaneously with one of three tones (440 Hz, 880 Hz, or 1760 Hz). For no-tone conditions, a classic vertical-line bisection bias was observed. This bias decreased for the low-pitch tone and increased for the higher-pitch tones. Effects were strongest for low tones in the lower left visual field and for higher tones in the upper right visual field. First saccade landing positions also reflected a vertical-line bisection bias. However, this bias was not modulated by audi- tory pitch.We conclude that visual spatial attention is influenced by auditory pitch in a top ^ down manner, possibly due to learned associations, rather than by bottom^ up multimodal integration.
Translated title of the contributionEffects of auditory pitch on vertical line bisection: bottom-up or top-down processing?
Original languageEnglish
Pages171 - 171
Number of pages1
Publication statusPublished - 2007

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