Investigation of the effects of causal inference on the process of multimodal integration

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24500335
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Cognitive science
• Research Institution: National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Umemura Hiroyuki 国立研究開発法人産業技術総合研究所, バイオメディカル研究部門, 主任研究員 (10356587)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 因果推論 / 多感覚統合 / 視覚 / 奥行き知覚 / 時間順序知覚 / サイモン効果 / 触覚

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the present study, I investigated the effect of causality on the perceptual and cognitive processes. For the purpose, I conducted various types of psychological experiments such as on the depth perception, temporal order judgement, and synchronicity. The results of these experiments indicate that the causality affects these perceptual processes. Furthermore, the results from introspection and the additional tasks conducted after telling the participants the possible causality revealed that there might be different processes about causality; one is a process in which a causality is automatically detected and affects other perceptual processes and the other is a process in which a meaning of causality is inferred. These results supports the existence of direct perception of causality which was proposed by previous researchers.

Free Research Field

心理学