Open data and code for No Evidence That Sound-Shape Associations Influence Temporal Resolution in Humans: Five Non-Replications of Parise and Spence (2009) and Meta-Analyses, by Suddha Sourav, Brigitte Röder, Franka Ambsdorf, Andromachi Melissari, Miketa Arvaniti, & Argiro Vatakis.

Abstract: Sound-shape associations (e.g., preferentially matching angular shapes with high-pitched sounds, and smooth shapes with low-pitched ones) have been almost universally observed in humans. If crossmodally congruent sounds and shapes are more robustly integrated in humans, distinguishing them in time might be hypothetically more challenging compared to incongruent sound-shape pairings. Supporting this premise, a highly cited work by Parise and Spence (2009, n = 12) reported worse temporal order judgement performance for audiovisual stimuli with congruent compared to incongruent sound-shape associations. Here, we report the results of five experiments across two laboratories, including a preregistered replication attempt, all (∑n = 102) failing to replicate the original results. Additionally, frequentist and Bayesian meta-analyses found no evidence against the null hypothesis, revealing a negligible effect size. The combined results indicate that multisensory temporal resolution in humans is unaffected by sound-shape associations, which might arise at a later (or parallel) processing stage compared to crossmodal temporal order judgements.

The study was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG Ro 2625/10-1) to B.R. (experiments 1, 2, and 3).