Causality poses explicit constraints to the timing of sensory signals produced by events, as sound travels slower than light, making auditory stimulation to lag visual stimulation. Previous studies show that implied causality between unrelated events can change the tolerance of simultaneity judgments for audiovisual asynchronies. Here, we tested whether apparent causality between audiovisual events may also affect their perceived temporal order. To this aim, we used a disambiguated stream-bounce display, with stimuli either bouncing or streaming upon each other. These two possibilities were accompanied by a sound played around the time of contact between the objects, which could be perceived as causally related to the visual event according to the condition. Participants reported whether the visual contact occurred before or after the sound. Our results show that when the audiovisual stimuli are consistent with a causal interpretation (i.e., the bounce caused the sound), their perceived temporal order is systematically biased. Namely, a stimulus dynamic consistent with a causal relation induces a perceptual delay in the audio component, even if the sound was presented first. We thus conclude that causality can systematically bias the perceived temporal order of events, possibly due to expectations based on the dynamics of events in the real world. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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因果关系改变了视听事件的感知时间顺序。

因果关系对事件产生的感官信号的时序提出了明确的约束，因为声音的传播比光慢，从而使听觉刺激滞后于视觉刺激。先前的研究表明，无关事件之间的隐含因果关系可以改变对视听异步的同时性判断的容忍度。在这里，我们测试了视听事件之间的表观因果关系是否也可能影响其感知的时间顺序。为了达到这个目的，我们使用了清晰的流跳显示，其中刺激相互跳动或相互跳动。这两种可能性伴随着物体之间接触时播放的声音，根据情况，这可能被认为与视觉事件有因果关系。参与者报告了视觉接触是发生在声音之前还是之后。我们的结果表明，当视听刺激与因果解释一致时（即由反弹引起的声音），其感知的时间顺序会系统地产生偏差。即，即使因果关系先被呈现，与因果关系一致的刺激动态也会在音频成分中引起感知延迟。因此，我们得出结论，因果关系可能会系统地偏向事件的感知时间顺序，这可能是由于基于现实世界中事件动态的期望所致。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2020 APA，保留所有权利）。即使因果关系先出现，与因果关系一致的激励动态也会在音频成分中引起感知延迟。因此，我们得出结论，因果关系可能会系统地偏向事件的感知时间顺序，这可能是由于基于现实世界中事件动态的期望所致。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2020 APA，保留所有权利）。即使因果关系先出现，与因果关系一致的激励动态也会在音频成分中引起感知延迟。因此，我们得出结论，因果关系可能会系统地偏向事件的感知时间顺序，这可能是由于基于现实世界中事件动态的期望所致。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2020 APA，保留所有权利）。