Influence of facial views on the mcgurk effect in auditory noise

Abstract

To investigate the nature of facial information involved in the integration of audiovisual speech perception, we examined the influence of facial views on the McGurk effect under two auditory conditions. While the speech perception of most of the audiovisual syllables used was little affected by the facial views and the auditory noise, a stronger McGurk effect was obtained for the 3/4-view image uttering labial sounds presented with auditory syllables of alveolars under the auditory noise. However, the facial view did not affect the visual identification of labials in the same way. These results suggest that the information about labial or nonlabial is not the only facial information involved in the McGurk effect. It appears some other information available only in the 3/4-view image might also be involved in the McGurk effect. Implications for the processing of visual, auditory and audiovisual speech are discussed.