Multisensory roughness perception of virtual surfaces: effects of correlated cues

Previous studies of multisensory texture perception have addressed the relative contributions of different modalities, examining visual/haptic and auditory/haptic interactions. In the present study, the ability of observers to use information from three sensory modalities (visual, auditory, and haptic) was examined in a virtual texture discrimination task. Results indicated better performance for two- and three-modality conditions for some stimuli but not for others, suggesting that the interactions of haptic, auditory, and visual inputs are complex and dependent on the specifics of the stimulus condition. Viewed in this manner, the results are consistent with the modality appropriateness hypothesis. These findings are discussed in view of current formulations of multisensory interaction.