VISUAL STIMULUS COMPLEXITY PLAYS A MORE SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN ASSOCIATIVE EQUIVALENCE LEARNING THAN STIMULUS MODALITY

Associative acquired equivalence learning, the ability to form relationships between different stimuli based on shared outcomes, is a fundamental component of human cognition. The present study examined how stimulus modality (visual vs. audiovisual) and visual stimulus complexity influence performance in associative equivalence learning.
Based on the original Rutgers Acquired Equivalence Test, we administered two visual (FaceFish and Polygon) and two audiovisual (SoundFace and SoundPolygon) tasks, which differed only in stimulus modality and complexity of the applied visual stimuli. Each comprised an acquisition phase followed by a test phase requiring retrieval of learned associations and generalization of acquired equivalence to novel stimulus pairs. The number of acquisition trials and error rates in all phases were analyzed.
Our results involved 45 volunteers indicated that the semantic content of the complex and simplified visual stimuli differed significantly. Furthermore, performance of 117 healthy adults revealed that visual stimulus complexity had a stronger and more consistent effect on performance than stimulus modality, particularly during the acquisition phase. Audiovisual presentation yielded some facilitative effects, especially when combined with complex visual consequent stimuli; however, it did not compensate for the limitations associated with simplified visual stimuli.
These findings highlight the critical role of visual stimulus features in shaping learning efficiency and suggest that the benefits of multisensory input may depend on the complexity and semantic content of visual stimuli. The results replicate and extend previous findings obtained from smaller samples and point to important directions for future research, including developmental, multisensory, and neurophysiological investigations of associative learning.