Multimodal integration, attention and sensory augmentation?

Abstract

Human information processing is limited in capacity. Here, we investigated under which circumstances humans can better process information if they receive task-relevant sensory input via several sensory modalities compared to only one sensory modality (i.e., vision). We found that the benefits of distributing information processing across sensory modalities critically depend on task demands. That is, when information processing requires only spatial processing, distributing information processing across several sensory modalities does not lead to any performance benefits in comparison to receiving the same information only via the visual sensory modality. When information processing additionally involves the discrimination of stimulus attributes, then distributing information processing across several sensory modalities effectively circumvents processing limitations within the visual modality. Crucially, these performance benefits generalize to settings using sensory augmentation as well as a collaborative setting. Findings are potentially applicable to visually taxing real-world tasks that are either performed alone or in a group.