Immediate perceptual response to intersensory discrepancy

Reviews the literature on the intersensory bias (IB) resulting when the information available to different sensory modalities is caused to be discrepant. Characteristics for which discrepant sensory information has been provided include spatial location, shape, size/length, and orientation. Stimulus variables affecting the magnitude of IB include structural and cognitive factors. Response variables affecting intersensory bias are the type and timing of the response required of Ss. Evidence on developmental trends and individual differences in the susceptibility to IB is both sparse and conflicting. Also unclear is the relationship between IB and adaptation to perceptual rearrangement. Since none of the various theories--modality precision, directed attention, and modality appropriateness--accounts for all of the intersensory discrepancy results, a new model is proposed, based on the supposition that IB is a result of an attempt by the perceptual system to maintain a perceptual experience consonant with a unitary event. (2½ p ref)