[2] While each of these is designed to process a specific type of sensory information, there is considerable overlap between them which has led researchers to question whether attention is modality-specific or the result of shared "cross-modal" resources.
[3] Previous research has often examined how directing attention to different modalities can affect the efficiency of performance in various tasks.
However a greater number of studies have emphasized the deficits in attention caused by the shifting between modalities.
Similar studies have examined how visual attention is affected by auditory stimuli as it relates to hemispatial neglect,[4] responses to cuing,[5] and general spatial processing.
Some studies have used positron emission tomography (PET) to examine the neurological basis for how we selectively attend to information using different sensory modalities.
[11] This would support the traditional theory that pairing auditory and visual stimuli that communicate the same information improves processing and memory.