Auditory Driving in Cinematic Art

Abstract

Although the visual modality often dominates the auditory one, one exception occurs in the presence of tempo discrepancies between the two perceptual systems: variations in auditory rate typically have a greater influence on perceived visual rate than vice versa. This phenomenon, termed “auditory driving,” is investigated here through certain techniques used in cinematic art. Experiments 1 and 2 relied on montages (slideshows) of still photos accompanied by musical selections in which the perceived rate of one modality was assessed through a recognition task while the rate of the other modality was systematically varied. A similar methodological strategy was used in Experiments 3 and 4 in which film excerpts of various moving objects were accompanied by the sounds they typically produce. In both cases, auditory dominance was observed, which has implications at both a theoretical and applied level.