Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl
the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects,
then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and
observations.
Today's article notes a tendency I figured was just off about me, but is actually widespread in the population. Apparently sight and sound are not processed instantaneously by most people, even neurotypical ones. And it's not even a predictable delay in processing, either, it literally varies by the person. I'd always kind of assumed that neurotypical people saw the world like they see movies: sight and sound processed together, in perfect sync. The fact that I didn't have that perfect comprehension was just one more thing wrong with me.
But apparently not. Apparently, I'm in good company with... approximately everybody. Though some people do manage to overcome this complicating factor and learn to lip read anyway. I've never managed that particular skill, perhaps due to my particular version of poor visual processing. I would guess I probably have a much longer delay than most, or I wouldn't have scored in the lowest 5% of people tested in visual processing...
The article talks about improvements to hearing aids and cochlear implants, or computer media players. Setting an individual delay could improve a person's experience with watching a movie, for example. Personally, I think I see why I like having subtitles so much, regardless of whether I'm watching a foreign movie or a domestic one. Because I read very swiftly, having the subtitles allows me to double-check what my ears hear, sometimes even repeatedly. They also allow me to catch little side-conversations that aren't otherwise even audible to me, which means catching extra jokes and additional information I might not otherwise have.
I know subtitles aren't ideal for everyone, but I kind of want them to be included in every movie from now on, now that I know other people also suffer from a lesser version of what I do. And can you imagine? The deaf/Deaf community would get to enjoy so many more movies that way. I regularly pick up a subtitles display machine when I see movies, even though I am not deaf in any way. There's always like 12 of those machines, but I'm the only one using them with any regularity. To be fair, they're not the most reliable pieces of machinery I've ever seen. It'd be so great if the experience was mainstreamed. More people would get the little easter eggs slipped into the side conversations, and the movie experience would be more inclusive overall.
It'd be better for many autistic people, too. Apparently some autistic people gravitate towards Japanese cartoons (anime) for various reasons. Such cartoons often come to us in Japanese with English subtitles, which well-accustoms a person to using such subtitles even if they do speak Japanese or understand it at the fluency level. Having that extra information enhances my experience, even if it no longer teaches me what triumphant music sounds like, or what someone thinks an embarrassed laugh sounds like and what context it's done in.
All in all, this is a cool little study that has interesting implications for the future of both subtitles and hearing aids.
Today's article notes a tendency I figured was just off about me, but is actually widespread in the population. Apparently sight and sound are not processed instantaneously by most people, even neurotypical ones. And it's not even a predictable delay in processing, either, it literally varies by the person. I'd always kind of assumed that neurotypical people saw the world like they see movies: sight and sound processed together, in perfect sync. The fact that I didn't have that perfect comprehension was just one more thing wrong with me.
But apparently not. Apparently, I'm in good company with... approximately everybody. Though some people do manage to overcome this complicating factor and learn to lip read anyway. I've never managed that particular skill, perhaps due to my particular version of poor visual processing. I would guess I probably have a much longer delay than most, or I wouldn't have scored in the lowest 5% of people tested in visual processing...
The article talks about improvements to hearing aids and cochlear implants, or computer media players. Setting an individual delay could improve a person's experience with watching a movie, for example. Personally, I think I see why I like having subtitles so much, regardless of whether I'm watching a foreign movie or a domestic one. Because I read very swiftly, having the subtitles allows me to double-check what my ears hear, sometimes even repeatedly. They also allow me to catch little side-conversations that aren't otherwise even audible to me, which means catching extra jokes and additional information I might not otherwise have.
I know subtitles aren't ideal for everyone, but I kind of want them to be included in every movie from now on, now that I know other people also suffer from a lesser version of what I do. And can you imagine? The deaf/Deaf community would get to enjoy so many more movies that way. I regularly pick up a subtitles display machine when I see movies, even though I am not deaf in any way. There's always like 12 of those machines, but I'm the only one using them with any regularity. To be fair, they're not the most reliable pieces of machinery I've ever seen. It'd be so great if the experience was mainstreamed. More people would get the little easter eggs slipped into the side conversations, and the movie experience would be more inclusive overall.
It'd be better for many autistic people, too. Apparently some autistic people gravitate towards Japanese cartoons (anime) for various reasons. Such cartoons often come to us in Japanese with English subtitles, which well-accustoms a person to using such subtitles even if they do speak Japanese or understand it at the fluency level. Having that extra information enhances my experience, even if it no longer teaches me what triumphant music sounds like, or what someone thinks an embarrassed laugh sounds like and what context it's done in.
All in all, this is a cool little study that has interesting implications for the future of both subtitles and hearing aids.
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