Hear These Auditory Illusions When You’re Bored With Laurel and Yanni
The audio snippet of the word “laurel” for some people (people who are wrong) sounds like “yanni” in the new, auditory analogue “Dress” . Have you already heard? Great! Here are some more awesome sound clips to listen to.
McGurk effect
What you hear: Depending on how the speaker moves their mouth, you will hear an accompanying sound like “ba”, “wa” or “yes.”
How it works: These sounds are all very similar, which is why our brains use visual cues to clarify what we are hearing. If it sounds like ba, but the person clearly looks like they are saying wa, we will use wa.
Same sounds, different words
What you will hear: first the word “bill”, then “bale”, “bucket” and “mayonnaise”.
How it works: All the sounds in these words are similar, or at least sound very similar to this recording. When you see images that blend in with them, your brain emits the matching sounds, similar to the McGurk effect. L’s in “count” are no different from “yo” in mayo, if you really think about it.
Haunted words
What you’ll hear: This song is just a bunch of synthesized piano notes, but you swear you can hear the Bee Gees singing. (There was such a clip of Mariah Carey a few years ago.)
How it works: The vocal sounds in the original clip have been converted to digital piano notes – not only one note per syllable, but enough to sound a little like all the sounds we hear when we sing. However, if you’ve never heard “Lost,” you may not be able to hear all the words. Listen to the original – the video above has a snippet in the middle – and then you will hear the phantom words much more clearly. This also happens if you are listening to distorted sound, such as when a train conductor calls a stop – if you know which stop the stop should be, you will recognize the words even if your out-of-town friend cannot make them out. …
Choose your own syllable adventure
What you’ll hear: In the clips in this video, you’ll hear over and over again what sounds like the same word. But what is this word?
How it works: These tracks simultaneously play one syllable from the left speaker and another from the right speaker. Syllables alternate, and your brain will look for patterns and try to recognize words. (The trick still works without headphones, but much better with them.) The sounds are ambiguous enough so there is plenty of scope for what the words might be. As explained in the video, researcher Diana Deutsch found that your perception can be influenced by conditions such as the mood you are in when you listen to a track.
Shepard’s Tones
What you’ll hear: a sound that goes up in pitch … and goes on going … and goes on going … and when you get to the end of a track, you can start over and it just stays going.
How it works: It’s like an auditory version of endless stairs. You hear several tones at the same time, and they get stronger over time – imagine playing the piano one note at a time, from lower to higher. But each note is actually a set of low and high notes. The highest ones get quieter and fade out as the lowest ones get louder, so no matter what, there are always notes in the middle that seem to rise in pitch. Still confusing? Check out the visuals in this Vox explanation of the effect.