Changes in Sensory Dominance During Childhood: Converging Evidence From the Colavita Effect and the Sound-Induced Flash Illusion

In human adults, visual dominance emerges in several multisensory tasks. In children, auditory dominance has been reported up to 4years of age. To establish when sensory dominance changes during development, 41 children (67, 910, and 1112years) were tested on the Colavita task (Experiment 1) and 32 children (67, 910, and 1112years) were tested on the sound-induced flash illusion (Experiment 2). In both experiments, an auditory dominance emerged in 6- to 7-year-old children compared to older children. Adult-like visual dominance started to emerge from 9 to 10years of age, and consolidated in 11- to 12-year-old children. These findings show that auditory dominance persists up to 6years, but switches to visual dominance during the first school years.