Auditory and visual confusions: Evidence against simple modality encoding hypotheses
Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 6, 2026

Cross-Modal Multivariate Pattern Analysis
Published on: November 9, 2011
1Department of Psychology, Oakland University, 48063, Rochester, Michigan.
Abstract:
Using both recognition and recall responses, confusion and intrusion errors were obtained for briefly exposed 11-letter strings. The patterns of errors were sharply dependent upon experimental variables. In Experiment I Ss made auditory and visual intrusions with recall, but neither with recognition. In Experiment II increasing exposure time and eliminating a poststimulus cue primarily increased auditory confusions. This suggests that auditory and visual confusions reflect strategy-contingentrecoding rather than modality-specificencoding.
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