Audio-visual speech timing sensitivity is enhanced in cluttered conditions.

ABSTRACT: Events encoded in separate sensory modalities, such as audition and vision, can seem to be synchronous across a relatively broad range of physical timing differences. This may suggest that the precision of audio-visual timing judgments is inherently poor. Here we show that this is not necessarily true. We contrast timing sensitivity for isolated streams of audio and visual speech, and for streams of audio and visual speech accompanied by additional, temporally offset, visual speech streams. We find that the precision with which synchronous streams of audio and visual speech are identified is enhanced by the presence of additional streams of asynchronous visual speech. Our data suggest that timing perception is shaped by selective grouping processes, which can result in enhanced precision i

SUBMITTER: Roseboom W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3071827 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature