The unity assumption facilitates cross-modal binding of musical, non-speech stimuli: The role of spectral and amplitude envelope cues

An observer’s inference that multimodal signals originate from a common underlying source facilitates cross-modal binding. This ‘unity assumption’ causes asynchronous auditory and visual speech streams to seem simultaneous (Vatakis & Spence, Perception & Psychophysics, 69(5), 744–756, 2007). Subsequent tests of non-speech stimuli such as musical and impact events found no evidence for the unity assumption, suggesting the effect is …