全世界都爲這段音頻吵翻了
Three years ago, a dress caused arguments across the internet over the question of whether it was black and blue or gold and white. And now, its audio equivalent has arrived.
三年前，一條裙子的顏色到底是黑藍還是白金在網上引發了爭論。而如今，音頻版的類似之爭來了。On May 13, an 18-year-old US student posted an audio clip on US social networking platform Twitter in which a man is saying a word. The word he says is “Laurel”. But strangely, as many as 47 percent of Twitter users said they heard the word “Yanny”, while 53 percent voted for “Laurel”.
5月13日，美國一名18歲的學生在美國社交網絡平臺推特上發佈了一段音頻，音頻中，一名男子說了一個詞。該男子所說的詞是“Laurel”。但奇怪的是，有47%的推特用戶表示他們聽見了“Yanny”，而53%的人認爲是“Laurel”。So, what caused the confusion?
所以，是什麼引起了人們的困惑呢？
Lars Riecke, an audio expert at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, explained to tech site The Verge: “The secret lies in the level of frequency.”
荷蘭馬斯特裏赫特大學音頻專家拉爾斯·裏克在接受科技網站The Verge採訪時解釋稱：“祕密就在於音頻高度上。”When we receive acoustic information from the outside world, the frequency of the audio affects how it sounds. So, a higher frequency makes people hear “Yanny”, while a lower one sounds like “Laurel”.
當我們從外界獲取聲音信息時，音頻影響着我們所聽見的聲音。因此，高音頻讓人們聽見的是“Yanny”，而低音頻聽起來像是“Laurel”。As amazing as it is, frequency could be influenced by our age. As we become middle aged, our hearing ability begins to weaken, making certain high frequencies harder to hear, meaning older people are more likely to hear “Laurel”. On the other hand, children’s ears are more sensitive to high-frequency sounds, so many of them will hear “Yanny”, the Daily Mail reported.
同樣神奇的是，我們所能聽見的音頻受到年齡的影響。當我們步入中年，聽力開始下降，很難聽見一些高音頻的聲音，這就意味着年紀大的人更有可能聽見“Laurel”。另一方面，兒童的耳朵對高音頻的聲音更加敏感，所以他們中有不少人會聽見“Yanny”,《每日郵報》報道稱。And the audio system playing the sound could also lead to some variations. For example, phones or speakers without good low-frequency playback capabilities will make us hear “Yanny”, and loudspeakers with good low-frequency capabilities will convey “Laurel”.
而播放聲音的音響系統也會導致不同的結果。比如，低音頻回放功能欠佳的電話聽筒和揚聲器讓我們聽到的是“Yanny”，而低音頻播放功能較好的喇叭則傳出的是“Laurel”。
And it’s not just our ears or speakers that determine what we hear – our brains also play a role. According to Bharath Chandrasekaran, a researcher from the US, the brain always uses surrounding cues to help it make the right decision when we face ambiguities.
除了耳朵和揚聲器之外，我們的大腦也會對所聽見的聲音產生影響。美國研究人員巴拉斯·錢德拉賽德蘭認爲，當我們感到模棱兩可時，大腦會利用周遭的暗示來幫助我們做出正確的決定。For example, if a girl unclearly introduced herself as “Laura”, our brain might automatically match this unclear sound with “Laurel”. However, if we heard the word “Yanny” mentioned around the same time, our brain might give an unconscious preference for this name instead.
比如，如果一個女孩含糊地介紹自己叫“Laura”，我們的大腦或許會自動將這個不清楚的聲音聽成“Laurel”。然而，如果當時我們聽到有人提起“Yanny”這個詞，我們的大腦或許就會下意識地傾向於聽見“Yanny”這個名字。“All of this goes to highlight just how much the brain is an active interpreter of sensory input, and that the outside world is less objective than we like to believe,” psychologist David Alais from the University of Sydney told the Guardian.
“所有的這一切都表明，大腦在解讀感官輸入時，表現得相當活躍，而外界其實沒有我們所認爲的那麼客觀，”悉尼大學心理學家大衛·阿萊斯在接受《衛報》採訪時表示。
