The perception of silence

Area of Science:

• Auditory perception
• Psychophysics
• Philosophy of mind

Background:

• Auditory perception is traditionally understood as the experience of sounds.
• The perception of silence is debated: is it heard or inferred?
• Previous theories suggest only sounds are perceived, not silence.

Purpose of the Study:

• To empirically test whether silence is genuinely perceived or merely inferred.
• To investigate if silences can elicit auditory illusions, similar to sounds.
• To introduce a novel empirical approach for studying the perception of absence.

Main Methods:

• Adapted established auditory event-based illusions to use silences instead of sounds.
• Conducted seven experiments presenting silences within ambient noise.
• Measured temporal distortions caused by silences, analogous to sound-based illusions.

Main Results:

• Silences produced temporal distortions analogous to those caused by sounds in established illusions.
• Demonstrated three novel 'silence illusions': one-silence-is-more, silence-based warping, and oddball-silence.
• Results indicate silences function similarly to sounds in event-based auditory illusions.

Conclusions:

• Silence is genuinely perceived, not just cognitively inferred.
• Auditory absence can be a direct object of perception.
• This study provides a framework for empirically investigating the perception of absence.