Latest research has revealed that in order to perceive moving objects, sensory abilities of the eyes and the ears are required. Both these senses together make up an estimate about the speed at which the object travels, the intensity with which the moving object collides with another object and the possible location of an object in the next second. All senses in the body make their estimates and the results are cumulated to one result. The most recent research on this subject has brought to light that the role of eyes and ears in perceiving moving objects is more than adding to the cumulative results. The research has been carried out at the University of California, Los Angeles and the researchers involved are Ladan Shams, Robyn Kim and Megan Peters.

The authors of the study have compared the functions of the sensory system in perceiving moving objects to democracy. Lead author of the study Ladan Shams says that, every part of the sensory system such as the nose, eyes and ears cast their votes in order to decide the most accurate possibility of the path of a moving object. In the current study, it has been found that these senses have a role to play even before the votes are casted and each sense campaigns for the dominance of its vote.

According to Robyn Kim, a cognitive neuroscientist, every sense has an influence on the other senses. They communicate and provide clarifications when there is a doubt. The connection between sight and hearing is the strongest and it takes place before votes are cast from all other senses much before the decision making process is embarked on. For the study, sixty three participants, divided into three groups, were considered and tasks were given in order to evaluate the response and contribution of sight and hearing ability in the decision making process.

The experiment consisted of two phases. In the first phase, participants were shown a group of dots that moved randomly. In the second phase, the dots moved in a patterned manner. There was a small pause between the two phases. After the clip, participants had to say in which phase, the group of dots moved horizontally. Along with the visual, the three groups of participants were also provided audios, which were different for each group. Results showed that the group that was made to listen sounds that correlated with movement of the dots gave the best answers.