2/24/2008

New Scientist's wonderful audio illusions

You'll have heard these before, but in case you haven't, New Scientist have collected five interesting audio illusions. (Thanks, Ben)

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous7:46 am

    Hm. On the left/right-handedness thing, I actually hear both melodies in both ears, and I can also hear them ping-pong between the ears. I do have a tendency towards ambidominance, though (although I'm generally right-handed I don't have a dominant eye or foot, and I think my right-handedness is just because I've generally been taught to do things with my right hand).

    Relatedly, in the arpeggio one, I can hear the melody even in the really slow version, but then again I'm a musician and I tend to use a technique like that when I compose a lot of my songs, so I'm probably a bit biased against hearing it.

    The "phantom words" one was pretty interesting though. The phrases I heard most were "no way" and "we'll wait," neither of which were listed on their common list. It was also pretty weird how I didn't hear any words at all through headphones... the widely-separated speakers really were important to the illusion.

    The stereo/binarual phonography one is still a lot of fun. Someday I want to get a binaural phonography rig and record my music that way.

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