Cheburashka Piano Sparks Audio Illusion Debate
Listeners hear different phrases in the Cheburashka toy«s spoken line.
Beauty blogger Polina Eliseeva had no idea how much popularity an ordinary children«s toy would bring her. The young woman posted a video on her blog showing an interactive piano with Cheburashka printed on its body. At the end of a short melody, the toy speaks a brief line in a cartoonish voice, and it was this phrase that nearly caused a rift between Polina and her boyfriend—and later divided half the internet. The reason: everyone heard the words differently.
Polina«s video became her blog»s most popular post within a minute.
We asked Doctor of Medical Sciences Alexei Doletsky about the origins of this auditory illusion and found out what the cartoon voice actually says.
Eliseeva clearly heard the phrase: «It»s not me,« while her boyfriend insisted the toy was asking: »Where are you?« The clip instantly amassed millions of views and went viral, prompting thousands of people to argue with friends and colleagues.
Here is the video in question.
As Professor Alexei Doletsky, Doctor of Medical Sciences and chair of the Department of Normal Physiology at Volgograd State Medical University, explained to us, the phrase many perceive at the end of the video largely depends on the expectation effect: a person hears what they are primed to hear at that moment.
— The second point: speech recognition is an acquired skill, and our brain, depending on how it has learned to recognize sounds, can transform them into words differently. So this is a matter of individual characteristics, — the professor says.
He draws a comparison with language models, which can interpret the same instruction in different ways.
— Why is that? It depends on individual features. The brain, essentially, works the same way. During development, it trains and builds up its own experience. Based on that experience, it will process the same information differently from those around it, — says Doletsky. — Yes, the differences are subtle, but tests and experiments like this show that there are differences, there is individuality. Brains differ slightly, and that«s normal.
While everyone was debating what the piano voice really says, the toy«s creators settled the argument. According to Gazeta.Ru, Cheburashka says: »Where are you?«
— The toy is programmed so that if a child hasn«t played with it for 15 seconds, it calls out in Cheburashka»s voice: «Where are you?» inviting the child to return to the game, — a company representative explained.
