Optimality and limitations of audio-visual integration for cognitive systems
This work addresses the problem of designing robust artificial cognitive systems by highlighting potential pitfalls from multisensory illusions, but it is incremental as it reviews existing phenomena and models without introducing new methods or data.
The paper reviews how audio-visual integration in humans is often statistically optimal but can lead to illusory percepts, and it suggests that understanding these mechanisms can benefit artificial cognitive systems by helping detect and mitigate such illusions.
Multimodal integration is an important process in perceptual decision-making. In humans, this process has often been shown to be statistically optimal, or near optimal: sensory information is combined in a fashion that minimises the average error in perceptual representation of stimuli. However, sometimes there are costs that come with the optimization, manifesting as illusory percepts. We review audio-visual facilitations and illusions that are products of multisensory integration, and the computational models that account for these phenomena. In particular, the same optimal computational model can lead to illusory percepts, and we suggest that more studies should be needed to detect and mitigate these illusions, as artefacts in artificial cognitive systems. We provide cautionary considerations when designing artificial cognitive systems with the view of avoiding such artefacts. Finally, we suggest avenues of research towards solutions to potential pitfalls in system design. We conclude that detailed understanding of multisensory integration and the mechanisms behind audio-visual illusions can benefit the design of artificial cognitive systems.