Does the image make a sound?

Marchesk December 10, 2017 at 20:19 4375 views 6 comments

It's weird, I experience a thudding sound, but I know it's not coming from my ears. The image has no sound. It's a silent gif. I wonder what Dennett would say about the auditory experience in this case.

The NY Time has an article on this with additional silent gif examples. I do experience some sort of sound with all of them, but again, I don't experience it coming from my ears.

Why We ‘Hear’ Some Silent GIFs

Comments (6)

apokrisis December 10, 2017 at 21:37 #132260 0 likes

Quoting Marchesk

It's weird, I experience a thudding sound, but I know it's not coming from my ears.

Do we experience any sounds coming from our ears? Our ears are a stereo system that help place sounds appropriately in space. So we hear sounds coming from the place they are likely being made.

With a gif, we are imagining the thudding sound. And the kinesthetic vibration in this case. So the stereo locatiing information is missing. But if you start focusing on the question of "where is the sound coming from", doesn't it start to come from the gif?

Maybe turn your head and look at the gif out of the corner of your eye. Doesn't it start to seem located?

Marchesk December 11, 2017 at 00:13 #132296 0 likes

Quoting apokrisis

Do we experience any sounds coming from our ears? Our ears are a stereo system that help place sounds appropriately in space. So we hear sounds coming from the place they are likely being made.

I perceive sound external to my ears, and that sound can hurt my ears if it's loud or shrill enough. This is different. It's like an internal auditory hallucination.

andrewk December 11, 2017 at 00:48 #132309 0 likes

I don't experience a sound. I would say that you are gifted with synaesthesia, except that the article says that 70% of people experience the sound. So perhaps it is rather that I am missing a common mental faculty (it won't be the only one I'm missing! :D )

Forgottenticket December 11, 2017 at 01:03 #132319 0 likes

Yes but we still know there isn't a sound though without having to be told. At least I think we do. I know that sound can't play on this board so perhaps I am fitting that into my interpretation.

Qurious December 11, 2017 at 01:11 #132320 0 likes

Reply to Marchesk

I think more than hearing the sound, the phenomena is more of an expectation to hear it or more a feeling that we've heard it. The large objects jumping and landing and the consequent shock-waves that would follow are some way or another conveyed in the illusion, and so the noise is perhaps tailored in the brains attempt at filling in the gaps.

Marchesk December 11, 2017 at 02:43 #132347 0 likes

Quoting Qurious

The large objects jumping and landing and the consequent shock-waves that would follow are some way or another conveyed in the illusion, and so the noise is perhaps tailored in the brains attempt at filling in the gaps.

I suppose auditory illusion is the better categorization.