Visual dominance and attention in space

Abstract

When human subjects are presented a light and a tone simultaneously, each of which serves as a cue in a reaction time task, responding is predominantly to the light. This phenomenon has been referred to as visual dominance. The present experiment attempted to test the hypothesis that when subjects must divide their attention between different objects in space, the visual channel is favored over the auditory channel. Rather than the “free-field” method used in our earlier work, our procedure involved the use of earphones to deliver the auditory stimulus. The results provided a further indication of the robustness of the visual dominance effect. While there was a slight reduction in the magnitude of the effect, as compared with the “free-field” situation, responding was still predominantly to the visual stimulus. © 1982, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.