Cognitive Styles Differentiate Crossmodal Correspondences Between Pitch Glide and Visual Apparent Motion

Abstract

Crossmodal correspondences are the automatic associations that most people have between different basic sensory stimulus attributes, dimensions, or features. For instance, people often show a systematic tendency to associate moving objects with changing pitches. Cognitive styles are defined as an individual’s consistent approach to think, perceive, and remember information, and they reflect qualitative rather than quantitative differences between individuals in their thinking processes. Here we asked whether cognitive styles played a role in modulating the crossmodal interaction. We used the visual Ternus display in our study, since it elicits two distinct apparent motion percepts: element motion (with a shorter interval between the two Ternus frames) and group motion (with a longer interval between the two frames). We examined the audiovisual correspondences between the visual Ternus movement directions (upward or downward) and the changes of pitches of concurrent glides (ascending frequency or descending frequency). Moreover, we measured the cognitive styles (with the Embedded Figure Test) for each participant. The results showed that congruent correspondence between pitch-ascending (decreasing) glides and moving upward (downward) visual directions led to a more dominant percept of ‘element motion’, and such an effect was typically observed in the field-independent group. Importantly, field-independent participants demonstrated a high efficiency for identifying the properties of audiovisual events and applying the crossmodal correspondence in crossmodal interaction. The results suggest cognitive styles could differentiate crossmodal correspondences in crossmodal interaction.