2.

Images + Speech

We hear and apprehend only what we already half know.

— Henry David Thoreau

ABBA.

Dancing Queen.

I take little pride in admitting it, but for a short period during my formative teenage years, this was easily my favourite song. In fact, I’d say I listened to it upwards of 300 times throughout the mid-90s — and during all that time I was absolutely certain that the opening lyrics were: ‘You can dance, you candie, having the time of your life’. To be honest, this did always strike me as slightly macabre, but come on … it’s ABBA … what else could I expect?

Jump to earlier this year. I’m at work surfing YouTube when I randomly stumble upon the originalDancing Queen music video. Despite my long history with this song, I had only everheard ABBA sing it — now, I would actually be able towatch ABBA sing it.

Fully expecting to be transported to my glorious youth, I hit play … that’s when I saw it. During the opening verse, both singers clearly rounded their pursed lips into an unmistakable ‘J’ form. For the first time in my life, I heard the correct lyrics: ‘You can dance, you canjive’. The song was never about someone passing away; it’s always been about someone getting down (which, in hindsight, makes a whole lot more sense).

So what happened? How is it possible that watching someone sing a song could overwrite twenty years of memory forged by listening to that song?

Hear with your eyes, see with your ears

MyDancing Queen debacle was a real-world example of the McGurk Effect, a psychological phenomenon that illustrates how what wesee can drive what wehear.

If you were to take part in a typical McGurk experiment, it would go something like this. You’re sitting in front of a computer screen, watching a man exaggeratedly mouth the word ‘baba’ while over a set of speakers you hear him saying that same word. Every second or so you hear it: ‘baba … baba … baba’.

Suddenly, while the voice continues unchanged over the speakers, the man on the screen starts mouthing a different word. Rather than pressing his lips together to form ‘ba’, he deliberately puts his front teeth against his lower lip and exaggeratedly makes a ‘fa’ form.

That’s when it happens.

Rather t