Cite as:
Roseboom W, Arnold D H, 2009, "Audio-visual speech timing sensitivity can be enhanced by crowding" Perception 38 ECVP Abstract Supplement, page 131
Audio-visual speech timing sensitivity can be enhanced by crowding
W Roseboom, D H Arnold
Humans often interact in crowded environments, with many people talking at once. One might expect this situation to be confusing, as the apparent timing of audio and visual events is mutually attractive (temporal ventriloquism). To assess un-crowded audio-visual timing sensitivity, we presented a voice speaking a syllable either synchronously with, preceding, or succeeding (166 ms) a matching visual speech sequence (Vstd). Observers then completed forced choice synchronous/asynchronous judgments. To assess crowded timing sensitivity, we presented two visual speech sequences. Vstd was accompanied by an identical adjacent sequence (Vad), presented before or after (166>ms). The auditory voice was synchronous with either Vstd or Vad. We found that participants were better at deciding which of two faces had coincided with a voice than they were at deciding if a single face and voice had been synchronous. These data are consistent with a selective temporal ventriloquism that brings the temporally closest, matching, audio-visual pair into perceptual register, thereby creating a sensory segregation between these and the unmatched sensory event. Such a process is highly relevant in real world scenarios. For example, making unrelated sensory events seem less related may make it easier to follow a conversation in a crowded room.
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