Audiovisual integration is affected by performing a task jointly

In multisensory research, several factors have been investigated that could affect the   process of multisensory integration. However, social factors  (i.e.,  whether a  task is  performed alone or jointly) have been widely neglected. In this article, we used an audiovisual crossmodal congruency task to investigate whether social factors affect audiovisual integration. Pairs of participants received congruent or incongruent audiovisual  stimuli and  were required  to indicate  the elevation of these stimuli.
The reaction time cost of responding  to  incongruent  stimuli  (relative  to  congruent  stimuli) was  reduced  significantly  when  participants  performed  the  task jointly compared  to performing  it alone.These results are in line with earlier findings on visuotactile integration in joint action.