Taylor Knickel

Spatial localization is a necessary and crucial component in how individuals understand and navigate simple and complex environments. However, attentional and cognitive costs may cause a deficit in the way audiovisual information is processed. This study tested whether participants in visual or auditory single-target and dual-target tasks had a difference in absolute errors in spatial localization compared to combined auditory and visual target conditions. Single target tasks were expected to have lower errors in localization compared to dual target tasks, as well as visual stimuli having lower errors than auditory stimuli. Larger separations between two stimuli were also expected to have lower error scores than stimuli that were closer together. Stimuli in these conditions consisted of auditory (a piano or violin note), visual (open or closed circle), or both auditory and visual (either a piano or violin note and either an open or closed circle) targets. Participants indicated perceived target direction verbally by first specifying whether targets were left, right, or center to their field of vision and secondly the angle of the location of the target ranging from zero to 90 degrees. Error scores were computed as the difference between the reported target location and the actual target location. Statistical analysis showed that auditory or visual single-target, visual dual-target conditions, and combined audiovisual conditions had significantly lower errors in localization than auditory dual-target conditions. In light of these findings, the extent of the role that multi-sensory integration plays in spatial localization is complex and may be dependent on the specific sensory modality presented. Future studies should be conducted to additionally contribute to picking apart the impacts of attention and cognitive load on spatial localization tasks both within and between sensory modalities.