Multimodal Interactions: Visual-Auditory

Humans are often exposed to visual and auditory information that arises from objects and events in their environment. For example, imagine that you are watching a game of tennis on television and someone accidentally mutes the sound. You will probably notice that following the game becomes harder, not just because the narration is no longer [Page 596]available, but also because perceiving the timing of the impact of the ball on the ground and racket is harder. Now, imagine that instead of watching a game, you are playing tennis yourself. Plugging the ears would strongly interfere with your ability to play because now not only can you not perceive the timing, speed, and location of the ball as accurately, but you also cannot coordinate your actions ...