The relation between the pip-and-pop effect and audiovisual integration capacity

The pip-and-pop effect describes the phenomenon wherein a nonspatial auditory signal significantly enhances visual search efficiency for a single target in a dynamic array, which may depend on audiovisual integration. However, how individual differences in audiovisual integration capacity modulate this effect remains unclear. The present study provides the first systematic examination of the relationship between audiovisual integration capacity and the pip-and-pop effect across two experiments. In Experiment 1, we replicated the classic pip-and-pop effect using a dynamic single-target visual search task. We found that individual audiovisual integration capacity significantly and positively predicted search performance specifically when auditory cues were present, but not in the no-sound condition. This dissociation suggests that audiovisual integration capacity selectively facilitates behavioral performance when auditory information is available to guide search. In Experiment 2, we extended this investigation to a dynamic dual-target visual search task. Although auditory cues enhanced dual-target identification accuracy overall, audiovisual integration capacity predicted behavioral performance in both the with-sound and no-sound conditions under high task load, reflecting shared demands on multiple-object tracking and attentional resources. Across both experiments, audiovisual integration capacity was not significantly correlated with the difference-based pip-and-pop benefit score, highlighting the multifaceted nature of the pip-and-pop effect, which likely involves additional mechanisms beyond audiovisual integration alone (e.g., alerting, attentional capture). These findings demonstrate that individual differences in audiovisual integration capacity may serve as an important modulating factor in the pip-and-pop effect, with its expression critically dependent on task load and the specific cognitive demands of the search context.