Cueing Visual Attention to Spatial Locations With Auditory Cues

We investigated exogenous and endogenous orienting of visual attention to the spatial location of an auditory cue. In Experiment 1, significantly faster saccades were observed to visual targets appearing ipsilateral, compared to contralateral, to the peripherally-presented cue. This advantage was greatest in an 80% target-at-cue (TAC) condition but equivalent in 20% and 50% TAC conditions. In Experiment 2, participants maintained central fixation while making an elevation judgment of the peripheral visual target. Performance was significantly better for the cued side of the display, and this advantage was equivalent across the three expectancy conditions. Results point to attentional processes, rather than simply ipsilateral response preparation, and suggest that orienting visual attention to a sudden auditory stimulus is difficult to avoid.