"Yanny" or "Laurel"?

[Noelle]

My husband shared this with me this morning. I won't go into too much detail to avoid affecting this experiment. Apparently, it has been trending on social media over the last few days.

Listen to the first video. What do you hear in the recording: Yanny or Laurel?

After you're done listening to the first, you can check out a possible explanation in the second video.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e8gpD-Xtxc


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDiXQl7grPQ

[Nasu]

Tucson police are trying to put the 'yanny or laurel' debate to rest through an "investigation."

Sgt. Pete Dugan said that the department was investigating some confusing audio that was spreading across Tucson and the entire country.

The audio he's referring to is a short clip that sparked a social media debate about whether the word being heard is "yanny" or "laurel." Depending on the person, they might hear either one — or both.

The video goes on to say that the public information office had determined the correct answer through it's investigation. The results? That it's laurel, not yanny, with Dugan adding that "it's pretty obvious."

http://tucson.com/news/local/tucson-police-host-press-conference-to-weigh-in-on-the/article_eea3f332-59e5-11e8-a39c-97a7184a91d5.html

Lol...x... N

[TargeT]

I have high frequency hearing loss... so i hear laurel. the explanation makes sense... I know I've lost a lot of auditory clues since my hearing damage occurred, it's most noticeable in crowds (everything seems to blur together), but apparently this i s a great test too

[Noelle]

When my husband first told me about it and then showed me the video, I heard "Yanny." He did not give a lot of info upfront either. A couple of hours later, he sent me an article on it. I listened to it again and heard "Laurel." :)

[mojo]

.... hmmm strange yesterday on the news program I heard Laurel very clear each time they played it, today there was no doubt after listening a few times to verify yanny was very clear. I dont get why after hearing again would it change after a day?

[Ivanhoe]

The first sounded like laurel, but the second sounded like yarry or gary to me, not yanny
Anyone else, or is my hearing shot?! lol

[Michelle Marie]

I heard "Laurel".

:)
MM

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

I hear 'Laurel' very clearly for the first part of the recording. When the pitch changes, I hear what sounds like 'Yilly' (rather than Yanni).

[DeDukshyn]

I have high frequency hearing loss... so i hear laurel. the explanation makes sense... I know I've lost a lot of auditory clues since my hearing damage occurred, it's most noticeable in crowds (everything seems to blur together), but apparently this i s a great test too

Speaker / sound system quality might be a driving factor as well -- unless you have a great sound system, whatever device one is listening on is going to also restrict frequencies - either high ones or low ones or both, which also is likely having an impact on what you hear.

I can't hear laurel at all at any of the pitch shifted frequencies ... I can't even imagine how it could be interpreted that way. I have slight HF loss in one ear so I tried listening to see if I could hear a difference between ears -- still sounds like Yanni to me. I have my PC wired into a very high quality system - the highs on this system are very crisp and clear, and because my subwoofer is ridiculous (I have a small dwelling), I have low frequencies lowered and the high frequency end bumped up a little to compensate - this might lend to my strict hearing of yanni.

I might check back later to see if I still hear it. :)

[Jad]

When my husband first told me about it and then showed me the video, I heard "Yanny." He did not give a lot of info upfront either. A couple of hours later, he sent me an article on it. I listened to it again and heard "Laurel." :)

I heard Yanny clearly the first time I watched the first clip. Then after watching the second clip, I went back to watch the first again and I heard Laurel! That is wicked! Can you imagine 2 people watching the same news broadcast for example and hearing 2 different versions of the story?

Edit: I watched the first clip for a 3rd and 4th time and I heard Yanny again!

[Noelle]

That is wicked! Can you imagine 2 people watching the same news broadcast for example and hearing 2 different versions of the story?

That was one of the reasons why I thought it was worth sharing. It made me wonder about that. :sun:

[mojo]

now Im hearing laurel:crazy:

[TigaHawk]

It's odd.

They had this on the radio last night when i was cooking Dinner. When played via speakers on the radio i clearly heard both Yanny and Laurel whilst the people on the talk show were quite adamant it only said Yanny. Noting ALWAYS when played on the radio it was yanny yanny laurel laurel. never a deviation of the two.

After listening through headphones i can only hear Yanny.

Just another thing to cause disagreement amongst ourselves? Some videos could only have Yanny. Others can only have Laurel, thus we disagree with each other on what is heard?


Edit- Another reason i think it's pure mind f'ery is because of the pitch.

Yanny is high pitch distorted computer voice.
Laurel is a more normal sounding but deep / low pitch.

How can you get both high and low pitch but only hear half? You'd hear both at once and it'd sound like an overlay of the two?

Social Experiment?

[ClearWater]

You'd hear both at once and it'd sound like an overlay of the two?


This is exactly what it sounds like to me. I can focus on one or the other. I can also hear both simultaneously, interwoven with each other.

This reminds me of the left brain vs right brain video with the spinning statue.

[Sunny-side-up]

First part was a clear "Laurel" second part was "Yelly" to me no yanny.
I stooped listening as soon as I got "Yelly" sounds a bit ominous to me, feels like something I don't wan't in my system, like a key word 0.o

[Did You See Them]

My wife heard laurel and I hear Yanny ( she blind tested me to start with by just playing it before I'd heard of this and I thought it sounded like "Yer Me" - but thats probably down to the Liverpool accents I'm used to.)

I cannot hear Laurel at all - can't even imagine how some are hearing that.

As pointed out, it just goes to show that two people can attentively listen to something and hear completely different things ! Makes you wonder how much things like this are used purposely to muddy the waters.

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

First part was a clear "Laurel" second part was "Yelly" to me no yanny.


We have the same ears, it's exactly what I heard (post #8). I'm reading of people hearing 'Yanni', and I'm like...whuuuut? How's that possible? The phonetics to me are precisely in the form of lôr'al - very clear, and nothing like yan'ē at all.

This is a very strange phenomenon! Thanks Lady M for posting it.

[happyuk]

When my husband first told me about it and then showed me the video, I heard "Yanny." He did not give a lot of info upfront either. A couple of hours later, he sent me an article on it. I listened to it again and heard "Laurel." :)

Same here. My daughter played it to me from her phone and I initially heard both and merged into Laurel and nothing else.

When replayed on TV I heard Yanny.

[Elpis]

I'm only hearing "Yanny". I cannot hear "Laurel" at all. My left ear is pretty much shot so I don't know if that has anything to do with it or not.
I did see something interesting. It was Yanny and Laurel both written out in cursive. Depending on how you looked at it, both could be seen. Interesting!

[Rawhide68]

Thanks LadyM

[DeDukshyn]

Today, I can hear "laurel", but only on the +30% pitch version - all else still sounds like Yanny. Weird. :)

[Melatonin]

I hear Yanny.:idea:
It seems that higher melatonin levels protect from high-frequency hearing loss:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/00016489.2010.549840

[Charles Harris]

The first sounded like laurel, but the second sounded like yarry or gary to me, not yanny
Anyone else, or is my hearing shot?! lol

I sure hope not, this is exactly what I heard.

[Hervé]

What does it mean?


Generational subliminal messages: youth hear one thing while their parents/grand parents hear another out of the same "music." Both would swear the others are completely wrong... right?

[Noelle]

This Wired.com article (https://www.wired.com/story/yanny-and-laurel-true-history/) talks about the history of the recording, which might be of interest to some. It also notes a few other explanations.

Thankfully, scientists have an explanation for why people hear different things when they listen to the recording. A number of academics chimed in to explain the phenomenon on Twitter. They said that the clip is an "ambiguous figure," or as one auditory neuroscientist explained it to The Verge1, the audio version of "Rubin's Vase," an optical illusion where two people's profiles can also be seen as a flower vase. In other words, it's an optical illusion, except for your ears. There's not really a correct answer either way. The reason that the recording is so contested is likely because it's noisy, meaning there are lots of different frequencies captured. What you hear depends on which frequencies your brain emphasizes.

The higher frequency sounds in the recording make people hear "Yanny," whereas the lower frequencies cause others to swear they hear "Laurel." What you hear depends on what sounds your brain is paying attention to, your past experiences, and what you're expecting to hear. What word you experience might also have to do with your age. Older adults often start losing their hearing within the higher-frequency range, meaning it's possible that more young people hear "Yanny."

There are also other, technical explanations. For example, what you hear might have to do with your speakers, your headphones, or the acoustics in the room. "The main reason (I suspect) people hear this differently is because different headphones and speakers filter the frequencies of the sound in different ways," tweeted Dana Boebinger, a PhD student at Harvard and MIT studying auditory perception, in a thread breaking down the illusion. There's also what platform you heard it on first—the differences in the audio could have something do with how Twitter or Instagram compresses video files.

[conk]

daXOQeMIadI Guess I've been watching too much NBA basketball.

[mojo]

If someone names their two children Yanny & Laurel they will be in for a big surprise when the kids get asked to do their chores they'll blame not doing them because you never asked them but only their sibling... For example when Laurel doesnt do them she could say, "I thought you were asking Yanny to do the chores"...lol