Abstract
MECHANISMS of human attention allow selective processing of just the relevant events among the many stimuli bombarding our senses1. Most laboratory studies examine attention within just a single sense, but in the real world many important events are specified multimodally, as in verbal communication. Speech comprises visual lip movements as well as sounds, and lip-reading contributes to speech perception, even for listeners with good hearing, by a process of audiovisual integration2. Such examples raise the problem of how we coordinate our spatial attention across the sensory modalities, to select sights and sounds from a common source for further processing. Here we show that this problem is alleviated by allowing some cross-modal matching before attentional selection is completed. Cross-modal matching can lead to an illusion, whereby sounds are mislocated at their apparent visual source3; this crossmodal illusion can enhance selective spatial attention to speech sounds.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
1. Naatanen, R. Attention and Brain Function (Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 1992). 2. Massaro, D. W. Speech Perception by Ear and by Eye (Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 1987). 3. Bertelson, P. & Radeau, M. Percept. Psychophys. 19, 531-535 (1976). 4. Cherry, E. C. J. acoust. Soc. Am. 25, 975-979 (1953). 5. Reisberg, D. Acta psychol. 42, 331-341 (1978). 6. McGurk, H. & MacDonald, J. Nature 263, 747-748 (1976). 7. Massaro, D. W. & Cohen, M. M. Curr. Dir. psychol. Sci. 4,104-109 (1995). 8. Radeau, M. Curr. Psychol. Cogn. 13, 3-51 (1994). 9. Witkin, H. A., Wapner, S. & Leventhal, T. J. exp. Psychol. 43, 58-67 (1952). 10. Driver, J. & Spence, C. J. m Attention and Performance Vol XV (eds Umilta, C. & Moscovitch, M.) 311-332 (Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 1994). 11. Massaro, D. W. in Perspectives on Perception and Action (eds Heuer, H. & Sanders, A. F.) 273-299 (Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 1987). 12. Blauert, J. Spat/a/ Hearing (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1983).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Driver, J. Enhancement of selective listening by illusory mislocation of speech sounds due to lip-reading. Nature 381, 66–68 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1038/381066a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/381066a0
This article is cited by
-
Can visual capture of sound separate auditory streams?
Experimental Brain Research (2022)
-
Auditory input enhances somatosensory encoding and tactile goal-directed behavior
Nature Communications (2021)
-
Facial speech processing in children with and without dyslexia
Annals of Dyslexia (2021)
-
The Effects of ‘Face’ on Listening Comprehension: Evidence from Advanced Jordanian Speakers of English
Journal of Psycholinguistic Research (2018)
-
Concurrent talking in immersive virtual reality: on the dominance of visual speech cues
Scientific Reports (2017)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.