The McGurk Effect fifty years on
The 16th International Conference on Auditory-Visual Speech Processing (AVSP 2026), Sydney, Avustralya, 02 Ekim 2026, ss.25-39, (Tam Metin Bildiri)
- Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Tam Metin Bildiri
- Doi Numarası: 10.21437/avsp.2026-8
- Basıldığı Şehir: Sydney
- Basıldığı Ülke: Avustralya
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.25-39
- Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi Kuzey Kıbrıs Kampüsü Adresli: Hayır
Özet
2026 marks fifty years since McGurk and MacDonald reported the auditory-visual illusion that became known as the McGurk effect (also the McGurk-MacDonald effect). We marked the anniversary by asking researchers working on auditory-visual speech and multisensory perception to fill in a “snapshot” questionnaire. This consisted of two 4-answer multiple-choice questions, i.e., how central the classic effect remains to their work, how they expect their own use of it to change over the next five years, and one open-ended question about whether it still deserves its iconic status (or has the field moved on). Thirty-four researchers responded. The open-ended responses revealed a mix of support and qualification. On the one hand, the effect remains widely valued as a demonstration that visual speech can alter auditory percepts and as a teaching tool. On the other, there were concerns about stimulus specificity, individual differences, task effects, and the distinction between incongruent illusions and the benefits of congruent visual speech echo recent empirical and theoretical work. The snapshot did not capture a simple verdict. Instead, it reflected a change in what researchers ask about the effect. Its iconic status is secure, but its status as a general assay of auditory-visual speech integration is not. A plausible future is one in which the McGurk effect remains in use but not as a standard ‘off-the-shelf’ assessment instrument to gauge auditory-visual integration.