In a world of science and research today, surprising and obscure facts pop up daily on our notifications. One such amazing fact you were probably oblivious about is that you lip-read while trying to converse with someone. A research conducted by David Lewkowicz, a psychologist who worked on infants, stands as evidence for the above statement.
The research that his collaborators and Lewkowicz himself conducted on babies gave rise to the conclusion that the infants learning two languages rather than one are bound to do more lip-reading. This thesis is an addition to a previous one stating that babies learning to speak bring their gaze to the mouth of the one speaking, rather than keeping it on their eyes.
According to Greg St. Martin of the Northeastern University , Lewkowicz conducted another such research with two adults, one person conversing in English and the other Icelandic and found out that adults also tend to lip-read in situations like such. He has stated that when we are conversing, we are not just hearing them but also seeing them while they speak. This establishes the conclusive proof that lip-reading is not only confined to something babies do.
Lewkowicz explained that it becomes evident when we go to a buzzing restaurant and try to have a conversation; unconsciously we do a lot of lip-reading. In such circumstances, we tend to utilize multiple senses to understand what is being said to us.
He says, “We do this all the time. If the information we’re hearing is unfamiliar to us, we tend to lip read as well.”
Subconsciously, we all engage in lip-reading whether we are aware of it or not. . As the research suggested, adults do more lip-reading than infants while trying to make out an unfamiliar language that they know very little of.
Subarna Basu
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