A long day of sorting through dissertation research has left me with very little time to write a diary. But that's okay, because I have a light, fun topic for tonight: the McGurk Effect, named for the person who first discovered it in 1976. I stumbled upon a link about the phenomenon on the Interesting As Fuck subreddit, and it is, indeed, interesting as fuck. What is the McGurk Effect? From Wikipedia:
The McGurk effect is a perceptual phenomenon that demonstrates an interaction between hearing and vision in speech perception. The illusion occurs when the auditory component of one sound is paired with the visual component of another sound, leading to the perception of a third sound. The visual information a person gets from seeing a person speak changes the way they hear the sound. People who are used to watching dubbed movies may be among people who are not susceptible to the McGurk effect because they have, to some extent, learned to ignore the information they are getting from the mouths of the "speakers". If a person is getting poor quality auditory information but good quality visual information, they may be more likely to experience the McGurk effect. Integration abilities for audio and visual information may also influence whether a person will experience the effect. People who are better at sensory integration have been shown to be more susceptible to the effect. Many people are affected differently by the McGurk effect based on many factors, including brain damage and other disorders.
That's interesting, but it wouldn't be nearly as fun without a demonstration. And you kind of need to experience it yourself to believe it. Follow me below the fold for the video...
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If you're new to the McGurk Effect, watch this clip from a BBC interview with psychologist Lawrence Rosenblum (who has been studying the McGurk Effect for over 25 years) and be amazed:
And another demonstration just for fun:
From a Slate article on the topic:
The McGurk Effect is surprisingly robust: According to this list from Rosenblum, it persists with babies as young as 4-5 months, with speakers of every language that's been tested, when the audio and video are from people of different genders, when viewers don't realize they're looking at a face, when viewers touch a face instead of looking at it, and when the audio and video aren't precisely synched. It does work better with certain consonant pairs than others, and less well with vowels or non-speech sounds, such as plucking versus bowing sounds on a cello. But it even happens when the viewer knows perfectly well to be expecting the McGurk Effect, such as Rosenblum himself!
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October 23, 2014
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