利用系統多因子技術檢驗視聽訊息的認知處理歷程

Using Systems Factorial Technology to Investigate Cognitive Processing in Redundant Visual-Auditory Signals

過去研究發現視覺與聽覺管道的訊息處理會交互影響行為表現。然而，過去研究方法在處理歷程的推論上有諸多限制。因此，本研究引入系統多因子技術（system factorial technology, SFT），探討參與者如何同時處理視聽訊息，做出正確決策反應。實驗一測量每一位參與者偵測視、聽目標刺激的心理計量函數。根據實驗一的結果，實驗二採用雙因子設計，收集實驗資料。結果發現所有參與者採用平行、自我終止的處理方式處理視、聽覺雙管道的訊息。此外，結果也顯示參與者在處理容量上具有個別差異。綜合所有結果，本研究不支持傳統的獨立賽跑模型與共同激發模型的觀點，研究結果支持交互賽跑模型，並認為參與者在平行處理雙重管道訊息之餘，管道間的訊息在累積的過程中，會彼此交換訊息，進而影響決策反應。

Previous studies have shown that visual and auditory information are correlated, leading to an integration account for visual and auditory processing. However, in previous studies, the inferences regarding the processing characteristics of visual and auditory information had limitations. Therefore, we adopted the core concepts of Systems Factorial Technology to design experiments, analyze data, and make inferences regarding the processing of visual and auditory signals. Two experiments were performed: In Experiment 1, we used the constant stimuli method to measure participants' psychometric functions for detecting visual and auditory targets. According to the psychophysics results, we adopted a double factorial design to regenerate the stimuli and test the participants in Experiment 2. The results revealed that all of the participants adopted a parallel, self-terminating strategy to process visual and auditory signals. In addition, the processing capacity varied across the participants. The results did not support the predictions derived from the independent race model or coactivation model. These results are more likely to be explained by the interactive race model, in which visual and auditory information is assumed to be processed in parallel, with crosstalk between visual and auditory channels during information accumulation, and the decision follows a self-terminating stopping rule. The theoretical implications of our findings will be explained in ge neral discussion.