'Yanny or Laurel' explained by St. Joe's Audiologist
It’s the question dividing the Internet. What do you hear? Yanny or Laurel?
The four-second audio recording that has been shared on social media millions of times is sparking arguments at home and at work over whether the robotic voice is saying Yanny or Laurel. Although the two are very different-sounding words, people seem to hear one or the other.
We asked Suzanne Melanson, an Audiologist at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton to explain what is going on.
She said the recording plays the two words at the same time, each at a different frequency.
“It depends on your hearing,” Melanson said. “A younger person with better hearing is more likely to hear, ‘Yanny.’”
That’s because Yanny is played at a higher frequency.
“An older person is more likely to hear, ‘Laurel,’” Melanson said.
Laurel is played at a lower frequency. As we age and our hearing changes, we start losing the ability to hear higher frequency ranges.
Secondary to hearing ability, Melanson said your brain also plays a role in determining whether you hear Yanny or Laurel.
“It depends on your expectation,” she said. “If your brain is preconceived that the word is Laurel, then you’re likely to hear ‘Laurel.’ If there’s no preconceived notion, then you might not.”
Yanny or Laurel follows other viral Internet discussions involving our senses, including one about the colour of tennis balls (some people see them as yellow, others as green) and the colour of the so-called “illusion dress” (blue and black or white and gold?).