我们的感官不断受到来自所有不同感官方式的大量刺激。要创建环境的连贯表示,我们必须将引用同一对象的各种单峰输入集成到单个多模态表示中。在某些情况下,然而,我们倾向于在没有任何明显原因的情况下结合刺激的某些特性,这是一种称为跨模态对应的现象。例如,我们匹配尖刺或圆形的声音\"Kiki\"或\"Bouba\",分别。同样,我们将左侧半球与低亮度相关联,右侧半球与高亮度相关联。在其他哺乳动物中也描述了交叉模态对应的实例,最近,在鸟类中报告了空间-亮度交叉模态对应的情况(即,家养小鸡)。这里,我们调查了三天大的雏鸡中音高-亮度交叉模态对应的存在,采用利用预先处理或学习过程的实验方法。虽然没有报告这种现象的证据,我们讨论了统计和结构交叉模态对应之间的差异,以及环境因素在确定它们出现中的可能作用。此外,我们讨论了不同实验方法的重要性,以研究这种感知现象的不同方面,以达到更深入的理解并揭示先天与学习机制。
Our senses are constantly reached by a multitude of stimuli from all different sensory modalities. To create a coherent representation of the environment, we must integrate the various unimodal inputs that refer to the same object into a single multimodal representation. In some cases, however, we tend to bind certain properties of the stimuli without any apparent reason, which is a phenomenon named crossmodal correspondence. For instance, we match a spiky or a rounded shape with the sound \"Kiki\" or \"Bouba\", respectively. Similarly, we associate the left hemispace with low luminance and the right one with high luminance. Instances of crossmodal correspondences were described also in other mammals, and recently, a case of space-luminance crossmodal correspondence was reported in birds (i.e., domestic chicks). Here, we investigate the presence of pitch-luminance crossmodal correspondence in three-day-old chicks, employing experimental methods that exploit either predisposed or learned processes. While failing to report evidence for this phenomenon, we discuss the difference between statistical and structural crossmodal correspondences and the possible role of environmental factors in determining their emergence. Moreover, we discuss the importance of the different experimental methodologies to investigate distinct aspects of this perceptual phenomenon to reach a deeper understanding and unveil the role of innate vs. learned mechanisms.