CAT 2021 Slot 1 — VARC Question 17
Directions for Summary: A paragraph is followed by four options which have summarized the passage in their own way. Pick the option that best summarizes the passage:
McGurk and MacDonald (1976) reported a powerful multisensory illusion occurring with audio-visual speech. They recorded a voice articulating a consonant 'ba-ba-ba' and dubbed it with a face articulating another consonant 'ga-ga-ga'. Even though the acoustic speech signal was well recognized alone, it was heard as another consonant after dubbing with incongruent visual speech i.e., 'da-da-da'. The illusion, termed as the McGurk effect, has been replicated many times, and it has sparked an abundance of research. The reason for the great impact is that this is a striking demonstration of multisensory integration, where that auditory and visual information is merged into a unified, integrated percept.
Answer & solution
- A
When the quality of auditory information is poor, the visual information wins over the auditory information.
- B
When the auditory speech signal does not match the visual speech movements, the acoustic speech signal is confusing and integration of the two is imperfect.
- C
The McGurk effect which is a demonstration of multisensory integration has been replicated many times.
Visual speech mismatched with auditory speech can result in the perception of an entirely different message: this illusion is known as the McGurk effect.
Easy
This is a para-summary. Find the central idea, then pick the option that restates it without distorting, narrowing, or adding new claims. The paragraph defines the McGurk effect: when a voice saying "ba" is dubbed onto a face saying "ga", listeners hear a third, different consonant ("da") — a striking case of audio-visual integration.
Pin the central idea. Mismatched visual speech changes what we hear — the two senses fuse into a single, new percept (not the original audio, not the original video). The label for this is the McGurk effect. The summary must carry both the "different perceived message" and the "named illusion" elements.
Option (a) — distorts. It claims the effect needs poor audio quality. The paragraph explicitly says the audio "was well recognized alone", so the effect occurs even with good audio. Eliminated.
Option (b) — distorts. It frames the result as "confusing" and "imperfect" integration. The point is the opposite: the senses merge into a clean, "unified, integrated percept". Eliminated.
Option (c) — narrow. It only reports that the effect "has been replicated many times" and is a demo of integration. It never states what the effect is (the perception of a different sound), so it fails as a summary of the core mechanism. Eliminated.
Option (d) — captures it. "Visual speech mismatched with auditory speech can result in the perception of an entirely different message: this illusion is known as the McGurk effect." This states both the mechanism (mismatch yields a new percept) and the name. Best summary.
The correct answer is option (d).