Multisensory synchrony of contextual boundaries affects temporal order memory, but not encoding or recognition
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21533210 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Vincent van de Ven (0000-0001-8735-3711, Maastricht University, corresponding author), Guyon Kleuters (Maastricht University), Joey Stuiver (Maastricht University) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 87 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 583-597 |
| Publication date | 2023-03-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Psychological Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0340-0727 • E-ISSN: 1430-2772 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s00426-022-01682-y |
| PMID | 35482089 |
| OpenAlex | W4224990543 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 62 |
We memorize our daily life experiences, which are often multisensory in nature, by segmenting them into distinct event models, in accordance with perceived contextual or situational changes. However, very little is known about how multisensory boundaries affect segmentation, as most studies have focused on unisensory (visual or audio) segmentation. In three experiments, we investigated the effect of multisensory boundaries on segmentation in memory and perception. In Experiment 1, participants encoded lists of pictures while audio and visual contexts changed synchronously or asynchronously. After each list, we tested recognition and temporal associative memory for pictures that were encoded in the same audio-visual context or that crossed a synchronous or an asynchronous multisensory change. We found no effect of multisensory synchrony for recognition memory: synchronous and asynchronous changes similarly impaired recognition for pictures encoded at those changes, compared to pictures encoded further away from those changes. Multisensory synchrony did affect temporal associative memory, which was worse for pictures encoded at synchronous than at asynchronous changes. Follow up experiments showed that this effect was not due to the higher dimensionality of multisensory over unisensory contexts (Experiment 2), nor that it was due to the temporal unpredictability of contextual changes inherent to Experiment 1 (Experiment 3). We argue that participants formed situational expectations through multisensory synchronicity, such that synchronous multisensory changes deviated more strongly from those expectations than asynchronous changes. We discuss our findings in light of supportive and conflicting findings of uni- and multi-sensory segmentation
Associative property · Asynchronous communication · Cognitive psychology · Memorization · Multisensory Integration · Perception · Segmentation · Sensory system · Speech recognition · Communication · Computer Science · Multisensory perception and integration · Neural dynamics and brain function · Neuroscience · Olfactory and Sensory Function Studies · Psychology · Artificial Intelligence
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| Citations per year | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |