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Subscribe to RSSJoan Raymond writes: Have you ever taken off your glasses only to discover that besides being blind as bat, you can’t hear too well either? You’re not alone. There’s even a small cadre of Facebook folks who gather under the group, "I can't hear you, I don't have my glasses on."
According to Lawrence Rosenblum, professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, the phenomena – though not highly researched – is plausible. “What we understand about the perceptual brain is that our senses integrate, and though we don’t think we use sight in hearing, we lip-read all the time,” and also get clues from teeth and tongue movement, says Rosenblum, author of "See What I'm Saying: The Extraordinary Powers of Our Five Senses." So if you can't see with your glasses off, you can't "hear" very well, either.
A phenomenon called The McGurk Effect shows how we all integrate so-called visual speech into speech that we hear. According to Rosenblum, researchers found that when a word or syllable is dubbed on a video showing a person’s face making a different sound, people will usually say the sound they “hear” is what the person on the video is saying, not the sound dubbed over it. Sometimes, people will come up with an entirely new sound, a combination of both the audio and video.
Rosenblum’s own research shows just how tightly sight and hearing are intertwined. In a study published in the journal Attention, Perception and Psychophysics, participants watched people mouth 80 words. The participants all had good hearing and no formal lip-reading training. When they were asked to repeat the word they thought was being said, participants were more likely to repeat the word in the same accent as the person who was mouthing the word. “We all mimic each other,” says Rosenblum, “but what’s so interesting is we do that even if we can only see, not hear, what a person is saying.”
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I am so glad to see this article. I have been teased by family and friends for years. I even recently had my hearing tested, and it was perfectly normal. The audiologist never mentioned that it was a normal phenomenon. I have poor vision and need my glasses. When I can't see lip movements, I have a difficult time in speech discrimination, especially when there is any background noise. Thanks for the info. I'll look up the facebook group and the referenced article.
It also explains why when you're not LOOKING at someone it's safe to assume that you're not LISTENING to them either.
Same with me. My hearing is perfectly normal. However, if my glasses are off or I am not looking at you - or you are not looking at ME - I can hear the noise but processing the information is difficult.
I was a reference librarian, and forever had to tell the library patrons to look at me while they were talking because I couldn't hear their question. It wasn't because I thought they were being rude, it was because I couldn't understand what they were saying.
I think this is more of a trained behavior. I remember when I was a teen and got my glasses, I had to learn to turn my head and focus through the lenses. Now a few decades later if I take off my glasses all my mental focus just goes... whoosh out the window. Removing the glasses is like punching a mental time clock, my brain just says "OH I can relax now!"
My wife says I don't listen to her......or something like that.
I actually took a “lip reading class” for severely hearing impaired kids. It was fun as the class turned into a game. Mr. B sat in front and moved his lips without making a sound. My classmates and I tried to guess what he was saying. With vastly improved hearing aids, I now hear exceptionally well considering my impairment. However, my use of visual clues is so ingrained that I will never refrain from using my eyes to hear. Likewise, I also use my eyes to spell.
That you can't distinguish speech when there is background noise is classic for high-frequency hearing loss, goldpointe. Most of the consonant sounds are in the high end of the frequency range (s, t, p, etc.). When you had you hearing tested, part of the test should have included testing against a whitenoise background sound. You might want to go back and check again. If you find yourself saying "What'd you say?" a lot, hearing aids can help.
SharonH, I know there is some loss at my age, but the test did include the white noise test and it was within normal limits. The hardest to hear for me is the low frequencies by deep bass male voices in a crowded restaurant. When I was a kid, I sneaked into the living room and watched a lot of old movies on TV at night after my parents went to bed, and turned the sound off and I lip read a lot. It seemed very natural to me, even without any training. Maybe it became a habit.
I do encourage people to have their hearing tested if they have trouble with speech discrimination, because the newer hearing aids can help a lot. Some of the older ones and the cheaper ones just amplified all sounds, and that was an annoyance to some. They've become much smaller and much, much better. (I worked with people who are deaf and hearing impaired is how I know).
Some people with hearing issues don't even realize that part of their "hearing" relies heavily on unconscious lipreading. Thus, when the glasses are off, they can't see someone's lips well enough to know what they are saying.
I once had a boss who had this issue.
Wow and I thought I was the only person thinking this! If I can't see past 40 feet (clearly) then I also can't tell if you are talking to me and or can't make out what you are saying. People think I have limited hearing sometimes, but I have yet to acknowledge that the person is talking to me, and is close by. When there are other noises going about, I have to be able to see your lips moving clearing to be able to concentrate on what you are saying so I can make out what is being said.
I tell people, If I can't see you well, you don't exist to some extent, so get closer :)
I have been hard or hearing all of my life, with the loss increasing as I reached about age 50 or so. My Mom, who was slightly hard of hearing too, would sit on one side of a glass door and I would try to lip read. It was not terribly successful, however she had perfect enunciation. In first grade the school hearing screening sent me to get a test by an audiologist, that's when we found out I had a hearing loss. Now I wear two hearing aids. However, I still cannot lip read. I hear like you do: a combination of sight (lips moving, facial expressions, etc) and hearing. So I have to have a combination. If you cover your mouth when you talk, I will not hear much of what you are saying. In my job I work with Indians. They learn British English, and speak it extremely fast, and with the cadence of spoken Indian language. As you may have guessed...I absolutely cannot understand them at all....a real handicap in this job. I hope to retire next year, and will hopefully lessen the stress of trying!!! I enjoy movies, TV, etc. except for when background noise is high...often in restaurants. Just sharing my perspective and experience in the hope that it helps someone else.
I am also glad to see this article! I say often, "I can't hear you, I don't have on my glasses" to people 5-10 feet or more away. People get a kick out of it, and frequently think I'm kidding. I am relatively young at 38, but without my glasses on I sometimes I feel like I am losing my hearing.
Neat to know that others also deal with this on a regular basis. It always made sense to me that speech and hearing were related. It seems natural that we would associate voice with lip movements and gestures.
Cool it has been confirmed!
Yes, I was laughed at when I said this back in the 70's. My sister, who doesn't wear glasses, still jokes about it. It seemed to me to be related to being able to read lips at the same time, and it turns out to be the case. Imagine.
I hear just fine,but cannot "hear" with my glasses off,,,mmm who knew.
I feel the same way as the previous poster! I hate swimming- I can never tell who is talking to me! Once I got contacts it was amazing how my hearing 'improved'. Now that I am back to glasses and need to wear them 24/7 I don't face the problem as much but still I feel vindicated! Thanks!
Same here...always been teased about not be able to hear my neighbors unless I put on my glasses....they think I am crazy!
There is definitely more to this. Check out Dr. Deborah Zelinsky's work at the Mind-Eye Connection.
Heather-2927030 If only Drs. would listen to the patient. Who knows their body better than the patient.I have a 40% hearing loss. I can hear if people speak well and a little slower. Otherwise fast moving speech is a looser for me. I also have tinnitus, but the eye, ear and mind connection all seem to work together. Thank's for the tip. Glasses seem to help a lot.
So there goes the old joke about the man whose wife complains that he isn't listening because his eyes are closed, and he responds, "Well, today I'm listening with my ears."
Funny, though, for me it is just the opposite: I have trouble hearing people when I am looking at them directly. People think I am ignoring them because my eyes wander everywhere but their faces, when in reality that's the only way I can concentrate on what they are saying.
I have always wondered if part of it was that the pressure from the glasses around the ears created some slight extra stimulus to the nerves to the bones in the ears making hearing slghtly more acute while wearing glasses.
I doubt it. I get the same effect when I put in my contacts.
I wonder how the spin doctors over at FOX are going to use this tidbit of information.
Oh, God, don't even think that. As I was reading the replies here, I wondered if anyone was going to make this a political argument. Over the last week or so, virtually everything is political. Even a bowel movement was considered an opportunity to make it a liberal/conservative argument.
This is new to me. I have never heard of this phenomenon.
The reverse is also true, you can't see as good with noise.
George Carlin asked, "why is it when you are are looking for street or address you always turn the car radio down?" Ever since I heard that back in the 70's I watch people, and he is right most people do in fact do it.
I logged in to make the same comment -- I can't see well when there is too much noise!! Maybe I can use that as an excuse in a bar as opposed to beer goggles...
Funny about the George Carlin comment. My husband gives me grief when we watch foreign / subtitled movies at home and I have to turn up the volume to clearly hear the dialogue even though I don't speak the language. I know I'm reading the subtitles, but I feel like I get the "emotion" of the scene from really hearing the dialogue.
Just goes to show how much we interpret anything we do, see, or hear from a variety of senses rather than just the one sense you would think would apply.
That must be why men never hear women, because we are always looking at their boobs.
"I see" said the blind man to his deaf friend.
Hmmm I wear glasses/contacts but haven't noticed if my hearing is affected when I'm not wearing them. But I wonder if this phenonemon is responsible for my preference to watch movies/shows in their original language. For an example, my family finds it weird that I am almost obsessed with watching anime in Japanese with subtitles when an English dub is available. It just doesn't seem right when its translated. That or it irritates me when they watch an English movie in the Spanish dub. It just drives me up the wall when the lips don't match the audio X3
@letrishar, I believe the line is: "I see", said the blind man as he picked up the hammer and saw.
I wrote my reply below before I read your post.
I learned it as, "I see said the blind man to the deaf woman."
My sister said it as, "I see said the blind man to the deaf woman over the broken telephone."
I'm the opposite. When I have my glasses off and lying in bed trying to fall asleep every noise in the house seems extra loud.
Should I sleep with my glasses on?
This fact has been known for quite a few years. Another factor that aides in hearing with your glasses on is that glasses tend to pull your ears slightly farther from their normal position against the skull. The glasses tend to "cup" ears more. Similar, though not as extreme, as cupping you hand to your ear to hear better.
Then you have HORRIBLY fitting glasses. Hit your Ophthalmologist as hard as you can.
If your glasses are pulling on your ears at all then you've got the wrong glasses on. They should rest on your nose and tops of your ears. They should also *not* weigh so much that they deform the cartilage in your ears.
You might want to check into a new set of spectacles.
LOL. Yeah, if you look like Alfred E. Newman, it's past time to get a new doctor. All glasses to some extent pull the ears slightly outward even if it's imperceptible to the wearer..... either that or I need a new Doc.
I've always known this snce I could never hear with my glasses off and I took the time to find out why. It's acually an unconcious think we do.
It's also why looking at the person when speaking is vital for good listening skills.
I know that when I can't see someone's face, I have a hard time understanding the words, not so much hearing the sounds. Since we use so many grunts in our speech, it's hard to understand the difference between uh-huh, nuh-uh, um-hum without facial clues.
As a court reporter, my job depends on hearing every word correctly and I know I must see the person's face to do this.
This was such an informative article. My sister was legally blind until she had Lasik 10 years ago. When we were children she could never hear us if she didn't have her glasses on. I just always assumed it was the same for all people with really bad vision. Thanks for the article!
I've had this affliction ever since I was a child at the age of 6!! Thank you for making me not feel like there is something wrong with me!!