Other Languages
People of all languages rely to some extent on visual information in speech perception, but the intensity of the McGurk effect can change between languages. Dutch, English, Spanish, German and Italian language listeners experience a robust McGurk effect, while it is weaker for Japanese and Chinese listeners. Most research on the McGurk effect between languages has been conducted between English and Japanese. There is a smaller McGurk effect in Japanese listeners than in English listeners. The cultural practice of face avoidance in Japanese people may have an effect on the McGurk effect, as well as tone and syllabic structures of the language. This could also be why Chinese listeners are less susceptible to visual cues, and similar to Japanese, produce a smaller effect than English listeners. Studies have also shown that Japanese listeners do not show a developmental increase in visual influence after the age of six, as English children do. Japanese listeners are more able to identify an incompatibility between the visual and auditory stimulus than English listeners are. This result could be in relation to the fact that in Japanese, consonant clusters do not exist. In noisy environments where speech is unintelligible, however, people of all languages resort to using visual stimuli and are then equally subject to the McGurk effect. The McGurk effect works with speech perceivers of every language for which it has been tested.
Read more about this topic: McGurk Effect
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“People in places many of us never heard of, whose names we can’t pronounce or even spell, are speaking up for themselves. They speak in languages we once classified as “exotic” but whose mastery is now essential for our diplomats and businessmen. But what they say is very much the same the world over. They want a decent standard of living. They want human dignity and a voice in their own futures. They want their children to grow up strong and healthy and free.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)