Differences in susceptibility to the ''blending illusion'' among native Hebrew and English speakers

This study was designed to explore whether native Hebrew and English speakers differ in their susceptibility to the blend illusion and in their lip-reading of words and cliche sentences. Four lip-reading tests, designed to assess recognition of syllables, words, and overlearned sentences, were administered to two groups of subjects who were matched for age, sex, and educational level. The English-speaking group showed significantly higher susceptibility to the blending illusion. The source of the effect was in the enhanced sensitivity to the auditory input in males along with reduced number of auditory biases in females. No sex differences in lip-reading of any item of the lip-reading battery was obtained in native Hebrew speakers. Subjects in both groups performed at the same level in recognizing the words and overlearned sentences. The result is attributed to the shorter Voice Onset Time values of Hebrew when native listeners would hear acoustic messages prior to discernable lip movements. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.