Top-down cross-modal influences on simple perceptual tasks

认知错觉为理解各种背景下的认知过程提供了重要基础。认知任务执行中的此类错误来源在指导研究人员了解低水平感知体验的潜在机制方面具有基础性作用（Bregman，1993; Lackner，1972;米尔纳和Dyde，2003; Warren，1981，1993），记忆（Bartlett，1932; Barthby和怀特豪斯，1989;约翰逊等人，1993; Roediger & McDermott，1995），以及判断和决策（Kahneman & Tversky，1973，1979）。这项研究表明，人类的信息处理反映了现实的构建，有时是错误的（见Koriat等人，2000，and Warren，1981，for reviews）.在听觉知觉经验的情况下，对这种建构过程的作用的评价必须补充更传统的方法，即调查感官输入的低水平处理在简单声音和声音序列的感知中的作用（例如，Hirsh，1959;米勒和德克斯特，1988）。在Bregman（1993）和Warren（1993）的论证的说服下，我提出的研究将通过对听觉和视觉事件的空间位置、时间持续时间和强度的感知中的自上而下的错误来源进行调查，来平衡这种更典型的强调自下而上加工在听觉和视觉感知中的作用的观点。因为我的目标是获得对基本认知过程的新见解，所以从我的研究项目中获得的知识将在各种领域具有广泛的适用性。例如，错误和低效率的感知可能是在课堂上获得技能的进展和工作场所的生产力的障碍。在生死之别取决于对迅速变化的环境作出有效反应的其他情况下，知觉障碍在航空旅行、急救医疗和武装部队任务等领域威胁着人类安全。

Cognitive illusions have provided an essential basis for understanding cognitive processes across a range of contexts. Such sources of error in the performance of cognitive tasks have been fundamental in instructing researchers about mechanisms underlying low-level perceptual experience (Bregman, 1993; Lackner, 1972; Milner & Dyde, 2003; Warren, 1981, 1993), remembering (Bartlett, 1932; Jacoby & Whitehouse, 1989; Johnson, et al., 1993; Roediger & McDermott, 1995), and judgment and decision-making (Kahneman & Tversky, 1973, 1979). This research has shown that human information processing reflects a construction of reality that is sometimes erroneous (see Koriat, et al., 2000, and Warren, 1981, for reviews). In the case of auditory perceptual experience, an appreciation of this role of constructive processes must complement the more traditional approach of investigating the role of low-level processing of sensory inputs in the perception of simple sounds and sound sequences (e.g., Hirsh, 1959; Miller & Dexter, 1988). Persuaded by arguments provided by Bregman (1993) and Warren (1993), my proposed research will balance this more typical emphasis on the role of bottom-up processing in auditory and visual perception by providing an investigation of top-down sources of error in the perception of the spatial location, temporal duration and intensity of auditory and visual events. Because my goal is to obtain novel insights into fundamental cognitive processes, the knowledge gained from my research program will have broad applicability across a diversity of fields. For example, errors and inefficiency in perception may represent obstacles to progress in the acquisition of skill in the classroom and to productivity in the workplace. In other contexts for which the difference between life and death depends on responding effectively to rapidly changing circumstances, impairments of perception threaten human safety in domains ranging from air travel, emergency medicine, to armed forces missions.