Hearing where the eyes see: children use an irrelevant visual cue when localising sound

Petrini, K.; Jones, P.R.; Smith, L.; Nardini, M.

doi:10.1111/cdev.12397

Hearing where the eyes see: children use an irrelevant visual cue when localising sound

Petrini, K.; Jones, P.R.; Smith, L.; Nardini, M.

Authors

K. Petrini

P.R. Jones

L. Smith

Professor Marko Nardini marko.nardini@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

To reduce sensory uncertainty, humans combine cues from multiple senses. However, in everyday life, many co-occurring cues are irrelevant to the task at hand. How do humans know which cues to ignore? And does this ability change with development? This study shows the ability to ignore cross-modal irrelevant information develops late in childhood. Participants performed a sound discrimination task, with or without an irrelevant visual flash, presented synchronously in front of them. Adults ignored the irrelevant visual information, while 7- to 10-year-olds' responses were biased toward the flash location. The findings show that acquiring mature cue combination mechanisms is a multifaceted process that includes learning to ignore irrelevant cues, as well as to optimally combine relevant cues.

Citation

Petrini, K., Jones, P., Smith, L., & Nardini, M. (2015). Hearing where the eyes see: children use an irrelevant visual cue when localising sound. Child Development, 86(5), 1449-1457. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12397

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Mar 13, 2015
Online Publication Date	Jul 31, 2015
Publication Date	Sep 1, 2015
Deposit Date	Apr 21, 2015
Publicly Available Date	Jul 31, 2017
Journal	Child Development
Print ISSN	0009-3920
Electronic ISSN	1467-8624
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	86
Issue	5
Pages	1449-1457
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12397

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Copyright Statement
This is the accepted version of the following article: Petrini, K., Jones, P. R., Smith, L. and Nardini, M. (2015), Hearing Where the Eyes See: Children Use an Irrelevant Visual Cue When Localizing Sounds. Child Development, 86(5): 1449-1457, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12397. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.