Communicator (communicator) wrote,
Communicator
communicator

The McGurk Effect

Here's an interesting little neural experiment. This video is produced by fusing the sound of someone saying 'ba ba' onto the visuals of someone saying 'ga ga'. If you play this clip with your eyes closed you can clearly hear the 'ba' sound.

However, if you look at the image, your brain attempts to fuse what it hears with what it sees. The result is that 98% of adults hear the resulting fusion as 'da da'. This is called (no, seriously) The McGurk Effect. Try it yourself. If you open your eyes you will hear a different sound.

Incidentally, I don't know why, but I hear 'ga' not 'da'. I think I must be some kind of genetic anomaly.

From Languagehat.
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