Sound can prolong the visible persistence of moving visual objects
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 10, 2026

Eye Movements in Visual Duration Perception: Disentangling Stimulus from Time in Predecisional Processes
Published on: January 19, 2024
Souta Hidaka1, Wataru Teramoto, Jiro Gyoba
1Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Arts and Letters, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8576, Japan. hidaka@rikkyo.ac.jp
Abstract:
An abrupt change in a visual attribute (size) of apparently moving visual stimuli extends the time the changed stimuli is visible even after its physical termination (visible persistence). In this study, we show that elongation of visible persistence is enhanced by an abrupt change in an attribute (frequency) of the sounds presented along with the size-changed apparently moving visual stimuli. This auditory effect disappears when sounds are not associated with the visual stimuli. These results suggest that auditory attribute change can contribute to the establishment of a new object representation and that object-level audio-visual interactions can occur in motion perception.
Related Concept Videos
Perception of Sound Waves
The pitch of a sound depends on the frequency and the pressure amplitude of the source. Two sounds of the same frequency...
Sound Waves
Sound waves are longitudinal in most fluids because fluids cannot sustain any lateral pressure. In solids, however, shear forces help in propagating the disturbance in the lateral direction as well. Hence,...
Perceptual Constancy
Size constancy is the recognition that an object remains the same size, even when its image on the retina changes. For instance, a bus is perceived to be large enough to carry people, even if it looks tiny from...
Echo
Imagine the sound is reflected back to the ears. Assuming that the source is very close to the human, the difference between hearing the two sounds—the emitted sound and the reflected sound—may be more than the minimum time for perceiving distinct sounds. If this is the case, then the...
Depth Perception and Spatial Vision
Sound Waves: Interference

