Hearing can make ‘invisible’ objects appear

If I said "cat," this might be easier to spot.

Bu.edu

Words that make objects appear from thin air are generally the stuff of the magical worlds of Harry Potter or Hobbits. But a new experiment has shown that words can make objects easier to recognize, as our sense of vision can be altered by other sensory inputs.

"People assume that vision is the most impervious of the senses, impenetrable to outside influences," said Gary Lupyan of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who led the research. But evidence is growing that shows external information can change what one sees.

Lupyan wanted to know how much of what we see is affected by factors outside of vision. "For example, when you see lights flashing in a club, they appear to be playing in time with the music. Actually, in most cases, the lights aren't doing that. The visual system adjusts what you see. In terms of timing, people have more accurate hearing, and thus what one sees gets altered accordingly," Lupyan said.