Space-independent modality-driven attentional capture in auditory, tactile and visual systems

Extending previous evidence for attentional shifts across auditory and visual modalities without the confound of the two modalities originating at different locations (Turatto et al. 2002), we investigated attention shifts between auditory and tactile modalities, and between tactile and visual modalities. Two stimuli (S-1 and S-2), either in the same or in different modalities, were delivered from the same spatial source and were separated by a variable temporal gap. S-1 was task irrelevant, whereas S-2 required a speeded discrimination. Results showed that modality switching is detrimental independently of the stimulated modality as long as the temporal lag between S-1 and S-2 is short enough that there is not time to switch attention before S-2 is delivered. We observed automatic, modality-driven, attentional capture, with ipsimodal trials leading to faster response times than crossmodal trials. The present results cannot be accounted for by spatial artifacts, response priming or criterion shifts, and are interpreted as the consequence of a space-independent attentional shift across sensory modalities.