MULTIMEDIA-ENGLISH
The McGurk Effect (brainrules)
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1:56
Video page URL
https://multimedia-english.com/videos/esl/the-mcgurk-effect-brainrules-6283
Description

What is he actually saying? It's called the McGurk Effect. John Medina is the author of "Brain Rules.", you can visit his page here.

Transcript

Watch this experiment it's called the McGurk effect.

* * * * * * *

What do you think he’s saying. If you think he’s saying “da da da” you are in the grand majority but now close your eyes and listen instead of watching.

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The voice is saying “ba ba ba”. Now let's replay it without the sound.

* * * * * * *

Yes, it's true. His lips are saying “ga ga ga”. So how is it that when the lips are saying “ga ga ga” and the sound says “ba ba ba” that our brains read “da da da”?

The McGurk effect. It's an example of an auditory illusion. It's a great way to show that the accurate perception of information can involve the participation of more than one sensory system, in this case vision with sound. We call it multi-modal perception.

The McGurk effect. It’s a terrific example of the fact that the senses did not evolve in isolation from each other but actually work together to help us perceive our world. When multiple senses are stimulated simultaneously the brain begins to experience and information rich learning experience and laps it up like ice cream. It encodes more information per unit time and it remembers that information better too.

Explanations

THE GRAND MAJORITY= Most people; almost everybody.

REPLAY= Play (the video) again.

LIPS= The red, felshy part around your mouth.

HOW IS IT THAT...?= Why.

BRAIN= The organ inside our head we use to think.

AUDITORY= Related with hearing.

ILLUSION= Something which looks real but it’s not.

ACCURATE= Exact.

INVOLVE= include, imply.

SENSORY SYSTEM= All the body-brain parts that produce one of our senses (taste, vision, hearing, touch, smell).

EVOLVE= If something evolves, it gradually changes in a process of evolution.

ISOLATION= Solitude, separation, without company.

SIMULTANEOUSLY= At the same time.

LAPS IT UP= Eats it or drinks it (especially eagerly).

ENCODE= Assimilate, convert (information) into a code. In this case it means to process that information and store it in our brain.