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Sensory Modalities

Sensory Modalities

Sensation typically is the process by which the sensory receptors and sense organs detect stimuli from the internal and external environment and transmit this information to the central nervous system for processing.
General senses refer to the broad category of sensory information detected by receptors in the body and can be further grouped into somatic and visceral senses. Somatic sensations include touch, pressure, temperature, and pain and are essential for navigating our environment and...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 3, 2026

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments

Published on: January 23, 2017

Is Attentional Resource Allocation Across Sensory Modalities Task-Dependent?

Basil Wahn¹, Peter König²

¹Institute of Cognitive Science, Universität Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany.

Advances in Cognitive Psychology

|April 29, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Human attention flexibly allocates resources across senses based on task demands. Object-based attention may use distinct or shared resources, while spatial attention consistently uses shared resources.

Keywords:

attentional blink attentional resources load theory multiple object tracking multisensory

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Last Updated: Mar 3, 2026

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Multisensory Integration
Human Information Processing

Background:

Human information processing capacity is limited by attentional resources.
Multisensory research debates whether attentional resources are modality-specific or shared.
Task demands influence attentional resource allocation across sensory modalities.

Purpose of the Study:

To review multisensory research on attentional resource allocation.
To examine the role of object-based versus spatial attention in resource recruitment.
To understand the flexibility of attentional systems in response to task demands.

Main Methods:

Review of existing findings in multisensory research.
Analysis of studies differentiating object-based and spatial attention tasks.
Examination of resource allocation across visual, auditory, and tactile modalities.

Main Results:

Object-based attention recruits distinct resources for visual-auditory tasks, but shared resources for visual-tactile tasks.
Time-critical or combined object-based and spatial attention tasks recruit shared resources.
Spatial attention tasks consistently involve shared attentional resources across modalities.

Conclusions:

Attentional systems flexibly allocate resources based on specific task demands.
This flexibility optimizes brain resource expenditure while maximizing relevant information processing.
Findings support a dynamic model of attentional resource management in multisensory environments.