The ventriloquist effect, where the perceived location of a sound appears to be influenced by visual cues, is investigated in this study. The authors, David Alais and David Burr, explore how visual and auditory information are integrated to determine the spatial location of stimuli. They find that when visual localization is clear, vision dominates and captures the sound. However, for severely blurred visual stimuli, the reverse occurs: sound captures vision. For less blurred stimuli, both senses contribute equally, and the perceived position is the average of the two. The precision of bimodal localization is generally better than either unimodal presentation. The results are explained by a model of optimal combination of visual and auditory information, where each cue is weighted by an inverse estimate of its noisiness. This model predicts that bimodal localization should always be better than either unimodal localization, and this is supported by the data. The study also discusses the implications of these findings for understanding sensory integration and the ventriloquist effect in natural conditions.The ventriloquist effect, where the perceived location of a sound appears to be influenced by visual cues, is investigated in this study. The authors, David Alais and David Burr, explore how visual and auditory information are integrated to determine the spatial location of stimuli. They find that when visual localization is clear, vision dominates and captures the sound. However, for severely blurred visual stimuli, the reverse occurs: sound captures vision. For less blurred stimuli, both senses contribute equally, and the perceived position is the average of the two. The precision of bimodal localization is generally better than either unimodal presentation. The results are explained by a model of optimal combination of visual and auditory information, where each cue is weighted by an inverse estimate of its noisiness. This model predicts that bimodal localization should always be better than either unimodal localization, and this is supported by the data. The study also discusses the implications of these findings for understanding sensory integration and the ventriloquist effect in natural conditions.