Trainers & Presenters mind your visuals

As communicators, those of us that use visuals of any form as part of our training or presentations, do we really understand the science behind what we are doing?

Do we ensure that the visual cues we give are coherent with what we are saying, avoiding slight anomalies which may dramatically change the communication?

This effect is called the McGurk effect.

The McGurk effect (named after Harry McGurk of McGurk & McDonald, 1976) is a compelling demonstration of how we all use visual speech information. The effect shows that we can’t help but integrate visual speech into what we ‘hear’.

Has this effect led to confusion and misunderstanding for you?

References – http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~rosenblu/VSMcGurk/