Sensory Perception & Interaction Research Group

University of British Columbia

Full citation: 
Levitin, D. J., Mathews, M. V., MacLean, K. (1999), "The Perception of Cross-Modal Simultaneity", in Proceedings of International Journal of Computing Anticipatory Systems, Belgium, 1999.
Abstract: 
One of the oldest questions in experimental psychology concerns perception of simultaneous events, particularly when input arrives through different sensory channels (sight / sound or touch / sound). How far apart in time must two events be to be perceived as sequential? This paper reports preliminary data from a cross-modal simultaneity task designed for ecological validity. Results indicate a smaller threshold for successiveness than that found in previous experiments, which used more artificial tasks. The present findings are relevant to theories of time, order and perception.
SPIN Author: 
Year Published: 
1999