One of the unresolved questions in multisensory research is that of automaticity of consistent associations between sensory features from different modalities (e.g. high visual locations associated with high sound pitch). We addressed this issue by examining a possible role of selective attention in the audiovisual correspondence effect. We orthogonally manipulated loudness and pitch, directing participants’ attention to the auditory modality only and using pitch and loudness identification tasks. Visual stimuli in high, low or central spatial locations appeared simultaneously with the sounds. If the correspondence effect is automatic, it should not be affected by task changes. The results, however, demonstrated a cross-modal pitch-verticality correspondence effect only when participants’ attention was directed to pitch, but not to loudness identification task; moreover, the effect was present only in the upper location. The findings underscore the involvement of selective attention in cross-modal associations and support a top-down account of audiovisual correspondence effects.

多感官研究中未解决的问题之一是来自不同模式的感官特征之间一致关联的自动性（例如与高音调相关的高视觉位置）。我们通过研究选择性注意在视听对应效应中的可能作用来解决这个问题。我们正交地操纵响度和音高，将参与者的注意力仅引导到听觉形态，并使用音高和响度识别任务。高、低或中心空间位置的视觉刺激与声音同时出现。如果对应效果是自动的，应该不受任务变化的影响。然而，结果表明，只有当参与者的注意力集中在音高上时，才会产生跨模态音高垂直对应效应，但不是响度识别任务；此外，这种效果只存在于上部位置。研究结果强调了选择性注意在跨模式关联中的参与，并支持对视听对应效应的自上而下的描述。