The McGurk effect and autistic traits; an analogue perspective.

Abstract

The McGurk effect is a perceptual phenomenon that an observer would perceive the intermediate phoneme when a speaking movie dubbed with an incongruent voice is presented. Several autism spectrum disorders (ASD) studies have shown that individuals with ASD showed weak influence of visual speech in the McGurk effect. Other studies, however, have reported negative results. This inconsistency among previous studies might be caused by the heterogeneity of clinical group. This study examined the relationship between autistic traits and McGurk effect among 51 healthy university students, on the basis of the dimensional model of ASD (Frith, 1991). Results revealed that autistic traits negatively correlated with the rate of visual response and positively correlated with the rate of fused response for the McGurk stimuli, while no correlation with the accuracy in perceiving the audiovisual congruent stimuli. This indicates that autistic traits might predict the weak influence of visual speech in the McGurk effect.