Ventriloquism: A tour of techniques

Here we are concerned with the interaction between auditory and visual spatial perception. When the two modalities are presented with spatially incongruent inputs an observer typically perceives the sound to be closer to the visual source than when no such visual input is present. Because it is reminiscent of the well-known variety act the effect has been dubbed the ventriloquism effect, and it is one of the classic examples of multisensory interactions. Exposure to a ventriloquist type situation has several behavioral effects, which can be categorized as being either online (i.e., immediate) or offline (i.e., aftereffects). This paper will discuss both of these manifestations, not so much the perceptual phenomenon itself, but more the vast array of methodologies used to study them. Topics include the various psychophysical paradigms, ways of presenting stimuli, and collecting response data