A Comparative Study of McGurk Effect in Persian and Kermanshahi Kurdish Subjects

McGurk effect is a perceptual phenomenon in which subjects use information from both auditory and visual modalities to come into a unified percept. In the classic example of McGurk, when auditory /bɑ/ is dubbed over the lip movements of /ɡɑ/ , subjects report perceiving /da/. Although this illusion is not considered a universal one, it is experienced by the majority of subjects. The effect had been the subject of multiple studies in different languages. The present study is the first survey which examines this effect in Persian and Kermanshahi Kurdish language. Our main question is to examine whether the effect is significant in Persian and Kermanshahi Kurdish language. We also investigated the effect of gender on the occurrence of this phenomenon. It investigated McGurk in Persian and Kermanshahi Kurdish subjects. 121 (11*11) audiovisual stimuli were presented to 120 subjects (60 Persian speakers and 60 Kermanshahi Kurdish speakers). The Results demonstrate a reduced McGurk effect in both Persian and Kermanshahi Kurdish subjects; however, the probability of its occurrence is significant in Kermanshahi Kurdish. The phenomenon is highly significant when an auditory labial CV is dubbed with a visual velar CV for Persian subjects; however, for Kermanshahi Kurdish subjects the effect was robust when an auditory velar CV is dubbed with a visual palatal CV. The effect of gender (both presenter and subjects) on the occurrence of this effect is also studied in this research. Results show significant effect of gender on audio-visual perception of consonants. However, if the percept happens, female presenters significantly affect the audio-visual perception of the subjects.