These results suggest that for these participants, the quality of the sensory evidence was lower for easy auditory than for easy visual stimuli, possibly reflecting an individual difference in modality-specific processing.
The differences in latency between the N400 elicited by words and chords can be explained by differences in modality of presentation (auditory vs visual), as previous studies have shown earlier N400 onset when targets were presented auditorily compared to visually [13].
Differences between studies, including intervention characteristics (differences in modality, type, intensity, and duration), presence or absence of cointervention, and participants' characteristics before (BMI and hormonal status) and after (weight loss) intervention, were considered for subgroup analysis.
However, it is still unclear why such variance could arise according to differences in modality, while van Londen et al. raised this question in the context of bibliotherapy [ 51].
Furthermore, such contextual effects might be due to differences in modality specific features of the representations at study and test (Pecher et al., 2004, 2007; Pecher, Van Dantzig, Zwaan, & Zeelenberg, 2009).
One previous fMRI experiment [41] and one recent electrophysiological study [42] investigated inter-individual differences in modality-specific interference.
However, this discrepancy can most likely be explained by a potential selection bias due to small study populations, and the differences in modalities used for the assessment of CAD in these studies.
So, to begin with, how do differences arise in modality of sensation -- what's the difference between seeing something and hearing something?
