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The McGurk effect is an auditory illusion which results from combining a face pronouncing a certain syllable with the sound of a different syllable. The illusion is stronger for some combinations than for others. For example, an auditory 'ba' combined with a visual 'ga' is perceived by some percentage of people as 'da'. A larger proportion will perceive an auditory 'ma' with a visual 'ka' as 'na'.
These movie clips demonstrate both versions of the effect. The actor will say a series of syllables very quickly. Focusing on the actor's mouth may enhance the illusion.
Technical notes:
The files are fairly large, and will take some time to download. The smaller images have smaller image sizes.
When playing the clips, the coordination of picture and sound is important; if the image skips frames (ie, looks unnatural), try quitting other applications to reduce processor load.
If possible, enlarge the image and set the video to repeat in a loop.
The .avi versions are suggested for Windows systems, the Quicktime .mov versions for Macintosh. (Of course, players are available for most combinations.)
| Movies | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ma-Ka (Strong) version | Ba-Ga (Weak) version | ||||
| Smaller image | .avi [.9 MB] .mov [3.5 MB] | .avi [.8 MB] .mov [2 MB] Larger image
| N/A
| .avi [3.8 MB] | .mov [6 MB] |