Purpose

1. % of Trials Invalid Cues Impair Auditory Motion Sensitivity Raymond M. Stanley & Nestor Matthews Denison University, Dept. of Psychology, Granville, Ohio, USA Purpose Experimental Conditions Discussion It is well known that non-sensory factors can influence visual motion perception (Raymond 2000). Here, we study the influence of non-sensory factors on auditory motion perception. When the directional cue was invalid, motion sensitivity was significantly impaired, and motion was reported significantly less often. Because positional information was identical across conditions, a position-based strategy alone cannot explain the data. The cue dependent impairment in the present auditory study is similar to that reported for the visual system (Ball & Sekuler, 1981). No Cue Valid Cue Invalid Cue 58.3 8.3 33.3 Results Stimuli & Task A trial comprised an auditory cue followed by either moving or stationary stimuli, presented via headphones. Moving stimuli were simulated by dichotic interaural intensity differences. Stationary stimuli were simulated by diotic amplitude modulations. Bottom Line The results suggest that auditory motion sensitivity can be significantly affected by a non-sensory factor, namely, cue validity. References Ball & Sekuler (1981). Cues reduce direction uncertainty and enhance motion detection. Perception & Psychophysics,30(2), 119 – 128. Raymond (2000). Attentional modulation of visual motion perception. Trends in Cognitive Science, 4(2), 42 – 50. Participants confirmed the cue then judged whether motion was present or absent.