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Mixing Sound and Vision: The Interaction of Auditory and Visual Information for Earwitnesses of a Crime Scene

NCJ Number
209687
Journal
Legal and Criminological Psychology Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2005 Pages: 103-108
Author(s)
Daniel B. Wright; Gary Wareham
Date Published
February 2005
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This study explored the interaction of auditory and visual information for complex scenes.
Abstract
The McGurk effect has been widely studied and occurs when visual information impairs the auditory perception of individual syllables. However, research has also identified a less pronounced McGurk effect with familiar faces than non-familiar faces. The goal of the current research was to explore whether the McGurk effect could occur for a sentence embedding within a complex scene. Participants were 80 volunteers who ranged in age from 9 to 66 years and were randomly split into 1 of 4 conditions in which a video was shown that was identical until the final scene. The video depicted a man following a woman and the man says one of two phrases; in two of the conditions, participants hear the same phrase they see the man saying and in the other two conditions, participants hear the opposite phrase than they see the man saying. Participants reported on what they heard the man say. Results indicated a McGurk effect in that when the visual and acoustic patterns did not match, participants made mistakes when asked to recall what was said. The findings have important implications for researchers focusing on the significance of visual information for earwitness testimony. Table, references

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