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How What We See, Impacts What We Hear.

Perception by Design, When What We See Impacts How We Hear.

Close-up of a blue eye with text: "How what we see impacts what we hear." Bottom text: "cooop. Design for Behaviour" and "ENVIROHACKING."

Our senses are the gateway through which we experience and interpret the world, shaping not only our perceptions but also our emotions, behaviours, and wellbeing. While we often think of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch as separate modes of perception, neuroscience increasingly shows they are deeply interconnected, sometimes in surprising ways. One of the most fascinating examples is how what we see can profoundly alter what we hear, challenging our assumptions about reality itself.



We have written a few blogs on our senses and how they support us in making sense of the environments that we find ourselves in. Understanding these principles as designers and architects also helps us to design more engaging and healthy spaces. Neuroscience has finally given us some empirical support for the idea that our environment has a tremendous effect on our behaviour, wellbeing, and success. It’s a wonderful circularity of designing spaces that are, in turn, designing us.


All of these spatial experiences are, of course, communicated to us through our senses. While the traditional and most widely known is five (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch as defined by Aristotle), the actual number of human senses is a subject of ongoing debate among scientists and philosophers. There seems to be some consensus on at least 9 or 10, and some disagreement on a further 10. That said, for the sake of this blog we will focus on the five we all know.


In general, these senses seem to function independently, as five distinct modes of perceiving the world. However, in truth, they are actually somewhat intertwined to the point where one sense can impact another quite severely. For example, it has been widely accepted that our sense of sight covertly influences our sense of taste. Hence the often-quoted saying, “we eat with our eyes first.”


However, visual information can also clash with what we think we hear, to the point where it can create a complete illusion of the actual sound. In short, what we see shapes what we hear. The best illustrative example of this phenomenon is called the McGurk Effect.


As illustrated in the video below, depending on what visual you are looking at, you are “hearing” “bah” or “vah” interchangeably, even though the only sound recorded is “bah.” The effect stubbornly persists even after you learn about it.


McGurk effect - Auditory Illusion - BBC Horizon Clip Two men with glasses and goatees stand against a clear blue sky, both speaking. BBC Four logo in the top left corner.
McGurk effect - Auditory Illusion - BBC Horizon Clip

A captivating and short BBC clip, this video brings the McGurk Effect to life, a perceptual illusion that reveals how our brains fuse visual and auditory signals when interpreting speech. In the clip, even though the audio repeatedly plays a single syllable (e.g. “bah”), if the lip movements show a different syllable (e.g. “vah”), viewers may still “hear” the mismatched syllable, an experience that persists even when you know the trick. It's a striking demonstration of how what we see can override what we hear, and how deeply intertwined our senses truly are.



We will be exploring a few more of these interesting ways in which we perceive the world around us in our upcoming blogs over the next few Fridays.


In Conclusion the way our senses interact reminds us that perception is never a simple, isolated process, it is layered, complex, and often deceptive. For designers and architects, this understanding opens the door to creating environments that not only look beautiful but also influence how people feel, behave, and even communicate within them.


By recognising that what we see can shape what we hear, we begin to appreciate the powerful role of design in crafting meaningful, multisensory experiences. Ultimately, our spaces are not passive backdrops; they actively participate in shaping us.



Information Reference Index:

How Interior Design Impacts Behaviour.

Horizon: Is Seeing Believing? - BBC

  • Source: BBC – The McGurk Effect (Video)

    https://youtu.be/G-lN8vWm3m0

    A short BBC video demonstrating the McGurk Effect, showing how visual cues can alter auditory perception.

McGurk effect and audio visual speech-in-noise: A causal inference explanation

Simple Wikipedia – McGurk Effect

Designing for Emotional Connection.


  • Spence, C. (2011)

    Page not found | ScienceDirect

    Examines how multisensory interactions influence perception, including how visual cues can alter taste and auditory experiences in everyday environments.

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