Lakehead University Library Logo
    • Login
    View Item 
    •   Knowledge Commons
    • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • Electronic Theses and Dissertations from 2009
    • View Item
    •   Knowledge Commons
    • Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • Electronic Theses and Dissertations from 2009
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
    quick search

    Browse

    All of Knowledge CommonsCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDisciplineAdvisorCommittee MemberThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDisciplineAdvisorCommittee Member

    My Account

    Login

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    Bimodal discrimination tasks involving different hierarchical processing levels reveal a late stage interaction between multisensory integration and attention

    Thumbnail

    View/Open

    ByceS2014m-1b.pdf (16.50Mb)

    Date

    2014-12-19

    Author

    Byce, Sarah

    Degree

    M.A.

    Discipline

    Psychology

    Subject

    Integration of multisensory information
    Role of the CNS in multisensory integration
    Behavioral studies of multisensory integration
    Multisensory integration and attention

    Metadata

    Show full item record

    Abstract

    Multisensory integration and attention have been studied independently and a vast amount of literature exists for both phenomena. Researchers have recently raised questions, however, as to how these two processes interact. For example, does multisensory integration occur automatically without the need for attention; or does integrative processing require attention for it to occur? If the latter, do attention and integration act in parallel throughout all information processing levels, or does one operation need to exist to advance the other? The present study sought to answer these questions through a series of within-subject tasks spanning multiple layers of the processing hierarchy. Forty-five participants completed three tasks involving audiovisual, integrated stimuli in which they discriminated the location of a visual target stimulus from nontarget distractors while being simultaneously presented with congruent auditory tones. The first task involved the discrimination of shapes and was shown to be preattentive in nature, with no facilitatory effect being observed in response to simultaneously presented visual and auditory stimuli. The second task involved the discrimination of die-point stimuli, which required high attentional demand. A trend towards intersensory facilitation was observed in this task, but was not significant. The third and final task involved the discrimination of integrated shapes and die-points, which also required a high attentional load. Findings from this conjunction search revealed a surprising reversal of intersensory facilitation. These results suggest that attention has a limited capacity in terms of multisensory processing, and that specific intersensory facilitation requires a unique amount of attentional involvement. Results are discussed in terms of feature integration theory, the perceptual load hypothesis, and attentional inhibition. This study also highlights the need for multisensory research to pay close attention to the influence of methodology, task sensitivity, and cognitive hierarchy when interpreting results.

    URI

    http://knowledgecommons.lakeheadu.ca/handle/2453/596

    Collections

    • Electronic Theses and Dissertations from 2009

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Thumbnail

      An Integrated Full-bridge Class-DE Ultrasound Transducer Driver for HIFU Applications 

      Song, Ruiqi (2016)
      This thesis present a CMOS integrated transducer driver for high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) applications. Because this driver will be used in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) environment, no magnetic components ...
    • Thumbnail

      An integrated ultrasound transducer driver for HIFU applications 

      Wong, Wai (2014-01-22)
      This thesis proposes an MRI-compatible integrated CMOS ampli er that is capable of di- rectly driving an ultrasound transducer for HIFU applications. The output stage of the integrated amplifier operates in class DE mode ...
    • Thumbnail

      Integrating a tactical harvest-scheduling model with a log sort-yard location model 

      Keron, Robert S. (2014-01-22)
      Failure to sort logs prior to their transportation to a mill can result in a loss of value in the forest products supply chain—for unsorted, higher value logs can be used in a low-value product where lower valued logs ...

    Lakehead University Library
    Contact Us | Send Feedback

     


    Lakehead University Library
    Contact Us | Send Feedback