Altered Selective Attention or Increased Imagination: Effects of Eye Closure on Vocal Expression Perception

These findings demonstrate that EC enhances vocal perception primarily through selective attention mechanisms, not imagination. The study advances theoretical understanding of EC's role in modulating attentional allocation during vocal processing, while highlighting (a) cognitive effects of short-term visual deprivation on auditory perception and (b) dynamic cross-modal interactions between visual withdrawal and acoustic cue integration during speech comprehension.