The McGurk Effect: Why Seeing Ga and Hearing Ba Makes You Hear Da

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

In 1976 researcher Harry McGurk and his assistant John MacDonald were running an infant study on how babies perceive language when a technician dubbed a video of a face saying one syllable over audio of another. When they played it back, they heard neither sound. Their brains produced a third. This episode explains the McGurk effect: hear ba ba while watching lips form ga ga and you perceive da da, a fusion the brain builds when the eyes and ears disagree. Researchers who have studied it for more than 20 years still fall for it every time.

The episode then follows the experiments that tried to break it. The vowel ee makes the illusion strongest while oo nearly destroys it, a female voice over a male face still fuses, and you can even trick yourself in a mirror. Brain damage, dyslexia, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder all change how strongly people experience it, and Japanese and Chinese listeners show a much weaker effect than speakers of English, Dutch, Spanish or German. The hosts close on what it means for eyewitness testimony and for lip synced deepfakes.

Why the brain compromises on da: ba is made with closed lips, ga at the back of the throat, and da sits between them
Audio can lag the video by up to 180 milliseconds and still fuse, but arriving 60 milliseconds early breaks it, just as light outruns thunder
The speaker's mouth must fall within 60 degrees of your gaze, and the effect is stronger when you see the right side of their mouth
A tactile task, like identifying a hidden object by touch, greatly reduces the illusion
Babies show the effect at four to five months, and English speaking children grow more visually influenced after age six while Japanese children do not

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(16184)

The Art of Adult Friendship: Why Quality Matters More Than Quantity

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore how our understanding of friendship changes as we grow old...

9 Marras 18min

Summer Explained: The Science, History, and Traditions of the Warmest Season

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore summer, the season most closely associated with sunshine, ...

7 Marras 18min

Sir Patrick Stewart: From Shakespeare to Star Trek, the Life and Legacy of a Legend

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the extraordinary life of Sir Patrick Stewart, the acclaim...

7 Marras 49min

Larry David: The Genius of Social Awkwardness, Seinfeld, and Curb Your Enthusiasm

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the life and career of Larry David, the comedian, writer, ...

6 Marras 38min

Why Australian Shepherds Aren't From Australia

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the history of the Australian Shepherd, an intelligent, en...

5 Marras 45min

Labrador Retriever: From Newfoundland Fishing Dogs to Modern-Day Heroes

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore the remarkable history of the Labrador Retriever, one of t...

4 Marras 53min

Discovering Ireland: A Journey Through History, Culture, and the Wild Atlantic Way

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!In this episode of pplpod, we explore Ireland through the philosophy of slow travel: go slower, ...

3 Marras 48min

Willie Hutch: An Overnight I'll Be There Lyric and The Mack's Soundtrack

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!William McKinley Hutchins was born in Los Angeles in December 1944 and raised in Dallas, where h...

2 Marras 21min