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.

中文翻译：

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认知系统视听整合的最优性和局限性

多模态整合是感知决策的重要过程。在人类中，这个过程通常被证明是统计上最优的，或者接近最优的：感官信息以一种方式组合，最小化刺激感知表示的平均误差。然而，有时优化会带来成本，表现为虚幻的感知。我们回顾了作为多感官整合产物的视听便利和幻觉，以及解释这些现象的计算模型。特别是，相同的最佳计算模型可能会导致幻觉，我们建议需要进行更多的研究来检测和减轻这些幻觉，如人工认知系统中的人工制品。我们在设计人工认知系统时提供了谨慎的考虑，以避免此类伪影。最后，我们建议研究解决系统设计中潜在陷阱的途径。我们得出结论，详细了解多感官整合和视听错觉背后的机制可以有益于人工认知系统的设计。