Running Head: Pip and Pop Pip and pop: Non-spatial auditory signals improve spatial visual search

Searching for an object within a cluttered, continuously changing environment can be a very time consuming process. Here we show that a simple auditory pip drastically decreases search times for a synchronized visual object that is normally very difficult to find. This effect occurs even though the pip contains no information on the location or identity of the visual object. The experiments also show that the effect is not due to general alerting (as it does not occur with visual cues), nor due to top-down cueing of the visual change (as it still occurs when the pip is synchronized with distractors on the majority of trials). Instead, we propose that the temporal information of the auditory signal is integrated with the visual signal, generating a relatively salient emergent feature that automatically draws attention. Phenomenally, the synchronous pip makes the visual object pop out from its complex environment, providing a direct demonstration of spatially non-specific sounds affecting competition in spatial visual processing.