Crossing effects in the tactile temporal order judgment task: A meta-analysis

The tactile temporal order judgment (TOJ) task is widely used in multisensory neuroscience. Participants judge which of two tactile stimuli, one on each hand, came first. A key finding is that TOJ performance declines when the arms are crossed, likely due to interactions between tactile, proprioceptive, and visual information. The TOJ crossing effect has been widely reported, but studies have employed various analysis methods, leaving open whether the choice of method influences the effect’s magnitude. Moreover, some studies have reported modulations by the availability of visual information, response modality, or speeded response requirements. Through an exhaustive, systematic literature search, we identified 37 experiments that investigated the TOJ crossing effect. Meta-analysis estimated the effect size at approximately 1.4. The moderators did not significantly affect this estimate, though this is likely due to too few studies being available to obtain sufficient statistical power. The large effect size supports the TOJ task’s use in other, e.g. developmental and clinical, research. However, the lack of statistically significant effect modulation by the moderators calls for caution when applying it for research questions beyond the crossing effect itself.