The role of audiovisual object features and scene context on children’s ability to categorise familiar objects
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: • Categorisation of visual, auditory, and audiovisual objects was tested in 5–13 year-old children; • The effect of a semantically congruent or incongruent scene, relative to no scene, on object categorisation was also tested; • Visual object information dominated audition across childhood, with no multisensory benefit on categorisation at any age; • A congruent context did not benefit categorisation accuracy but it reduced category response times for auditory objects only; • Scene context supported categorisation only when cues were unreliable, suggesting a compensatory, not facilitative, role. Children’s ability to visually categorise objects emerges early in development. However, the use of relevant object features from other modalities, or contextual scene cues, on categorisation across development is poorly understood. In particular, children’s categorisation may benefit from any associated cue to categorisation or may be specific to the availability of object-relevant sensory information. We tested children between the ages of 5–13 years on their categorisation of familiar objects, which were presented either as images-only (V), sounds-only (A) or bimodal AV objects. In addition, the objects were presented either in isolation or within a scene context that was either semantically congruent or incongruent to the object category. Whilst categorisation performance improved with age, children were better able to categorise object images than sounds, and there was no overall advantage for combined AV information over images only on either accuracy or response times. A semantically congruent context did not further improve categorisation accuracy, although response times were fastest to objects presented within a congruent scene context, particularly when an object’s sound was presented. Our findings suggest that visual information dominated the categorisation of familiar objects over sounds in children, with no evidence that these cues are combined at any age. However, children’s categorisation of objects benefitted from the associative scene context, particularly when the object information was impoverished. Our findings have important implications for understanding how children adaptively use available information in the categorisation of familiar objects.
Authors: Eimear M. McKenna, Fiona N. Newell
Institution: Trinity College Dublin
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,500
Funder: Science Foundation Ireland
OpenAlex ID: W7147040140