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<div><p>Preparing an ocular saccade is known to affect not only the perception of various visual features, such as orientation, contrast, and numerosity, but also sound localization. In the present study, we tested whether saccade preparation influences the perception of other auditory features, such as the pitch of a tone played before eye movement. We also examined whether pitch could influence saccade characteristics, as an instance of response compatibility effects. At the beginning of each trial, a visual cue indicated that a disk would appear above or below fixation. Participants were then presented with a tone of varying frequency and were instructed either to make a saccade toward the peripheral disk after the tone ended or to maintain fixation on the center of the screen. Pitch was consistently overestimated when the disk appeared in the upper visual field compared with the lower visual field. However, we found no evidence that saccade preparation affected pitch perception and no evidence of response compatibility effects. These findings suggest that vertical shifts of visuospatial attention are sufficient to impact pitch discrimination, likely through the activation of the spatial representation inherent to pitch.</p></div>

Sensory attenuation refers to reduced neural and perceptual responses to self-generated tones compared to tones triggered externally. Our previous study showed that the strength of action-outcome coupling (SAOC) influences the perceptual biases for sound intensity. Indeed, we observed that the overall perceived intensity of tones triggered by keypresses (strong coupling) was attenuated, in contrast to tones triggered by ocular saccades (weak coupling). Building on this earlier study, we investigated the influence of SAOC on perceptual attenuation for auditory pitch. Indeed, to date, no behavioral study has demonstrated any sensory attenuation effect regarding pitch perception, although it has been suggested that attenuation may manifest in this case as a change in the ability to perceive pitch differences (discrimination sensitivity). A total of 140 participants were divided into three groups. They performed a pitch discrimination task in which test tones of varying frequency were triggered either by an ocular saccade, a keypress, or played after a cue (no action required, or “passive” group). Test tones were presented 150 ms or 1500 ms after the action (or cue). Results revealed lower discrimination sensitivity in the keypress group compared to the passive group (Cohen's d = 0.66). In contrast, no significant difference was found between the saccade and passive groups. Also, in the keypress group only, we observed a small effect of delay (Cohen's d = 0.14), with reduced sensitivity at the shorter action-outcome interval. This reduced perceptual sensitivity for keypress-triggered tones may reflect sensory attenuation (sounds are more difficult to differentiate), possibly due to predictive mechanisms. Importantly, the absence of a significant difference between the saccade and passive groups, together with the small size of the delay effect, suggests that this reduction in sensitivity cannot be explained by dual-task interference alone. These results align with our previous findings suggesting that a strong action-outcome coupling is necessary to observe perceptual attenuation.

Research on VR-based learning is characterized by substantial heterogeneity, inconsistent findings, and uneven methodological quality. While benefits have been reported, they vary considerably across meta-analyses (MAs), raising concerns about methodological quality and making it difficult to draw firm conclusions for research and practice. To critically assess the evidential strength of this literature, we conducted a MA stratified by methodological quality, covering four decades of research (1993–2022) and integrating 26 first-order MAs, 180 primary studies, 281 comparisons between VR and alternative instructional methods, and a total of 18,792 participants. Four MAs were performed: one including all comparisons, and three restricted to studies grouped by assessed risk of bias. When aggregating all available evidence, the results indicated a statistically significant moderate effect favoring VR (Standardized Mean Difference, SMD = 0.55), but also a modest publication bias. Statistically significant effects were observed mainly in studies classified as having a high risk of bias or some concerns (SMDs = 0.38 and 0.43, respectively). In contrast, the subset of studies rated as low risk of bias (representing the highest methodological quality) showed a nonsignificant effect (SMD = 0.35). Analyses restricted to the most rigorous studies therefore suggest both limited statistical power and inconsistent evidence. All analyses showed substantial heterogeneity, largely driven by between-study variance. To reduce methodological confounds, moderator analyses were restricted to studies of moderate to high methodological quality and focused on four theoretically motivated moderators: type of skill, outcome measure, level of VR immersion, and type of alternative instructional method. None of them significantly explained for the observed heterogeneity. Importantly, analyses based on the best-available evidence did not yield consistent or robust support for a reliable learning advantage of VR. Effects reported in the broader literature appear to be driven largely by studies of lower methodological quality, whereas higher-quality studies provide limited and inconsistent evidence. Overall, these findings indicate substantial uncertainty and suggest that current evidence is insufficient to support firm, general conclusions regarding when, how, and for whom VR enhances learning.

Children are limited in visual search accuracy and this ability increases from childhood to adolescence. Developmental limitations in visual search could be related to children's difficulties in efficiently planning and executing their search, often assessed with cancellation tasks. However, few studies have examined age-related changes in visual search strategies. In the present study, 135 French participants between the ages of 7 to 16 years performed a complex cancellation task. Results showed that the participants improved not only in visual search accuracy and speed with age, but they also organized better their visual search as they got older. Moreover, this improvement seemed linear from age 7 to age 16, suggesting that visual search strategies still improve during adolescence. This finding may be linked to the maturation of specific cerebral networks and opens new perspectives for future studies to better understand visual search processes.