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 4 years of age. To establish when sensory dominance changes during development, 41 children (6-7, 9-10, and 11-12 years) were tested on the Colavita task (Experiment 1) and 32 children (6-7, 9-10, and 11-12 years) 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 10 years of age, and consolidated in 11- to 12-year-old children. These findings show that auditory dominance persists up to 6 years, but switches to visual dominance during the first school years.