auditory vs visual ("Piet G. Vos" )

Subject: auditory vs visual
From:    "Piet G. Vos"  <VOS(at)NICI.KUN.NL>
Date:    Thu, 24 Jun 1993 12:11:00 MET

Bop Port's RE to M-A Decoste's Q is a substantial one: Indeed, also in
tracking tasks, e.g. requiring to tap in synchrony to a metronome,
response variability is systematically larger when the metronome is a
visual one (light flashes) instead of the auditory standard. In
further agreement with the explanation in terms of different type of
physiological processing systems for higher speed and accuracy with
auditory reactions is the well established fact that a LED-bound
temporal interval is subjectively longer than an objectively equally
long click-bound interval. More generally spoken, auditory perception
is systematically superior in the domain of time perception and
production, and this conclusion is supported by a large number of
convergent comparative studies on this issue (c.f. e.g. Walker &
Scott, JEP-HPP '81).

Piet G. Vos