Speaker Mike Dow - 'Good Mrs Murphy and the Cross-Eyed Bear'

Tue, Oct 20th 2015 at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm


Did I really hear that? – was the question members of the Rotary Club of St Andrews Kilrymont were asking for most of their most recent meeting.

The answer generally was “Yes, you did. But all of you heard something entirely different”.

The culprit for this odd state of affairs was Rotarian Mike Dow, a clinical psychologist. (Or, to use the theme of his presentation, a ‘clerical soroptomist’). His theme being how common it can be for people to mishear, misinterpret, misunderstand and generally get wrong what they are hearing in conversation or music lyrics.

Mike opened his talk with the explanation of the term ‘Mondegreen’, which was coined by writer Sylvia Wright in 1954 when she outlined a familiar misinterpretation of a traditional Scottish folk song, “The Bonnie Earl O’ Moray”. A verse which ends as “slain the Earl O’ Moray and laid him on the green” is commonly heard as “slain the Earl O’ Moray and Lady Mondegreen”.

The non-existent Lady Mondegreen has become globally the term for such mishearing and has spawned a large number of websites devoted to auditory errors. Another example being an Elvis favourite which translates to many as “Everybody in a wholesale frock was dancin’ to the jailhouse rock”.

Elvis must be gurning in his stave…….

With the use of some clever graphics, Mike also demonstrated the McGurk Effect, which pertains to the effect the eyes have on what we hear, or think we hear. In other words, watching the way in which a person frames words and sounds can completely alter the meaning of their utterances.

Much laughter was generated by this particular presentation, and continued when Dr Ian Black proposed the vote of thanks. Ian applauded Mike for a “wonderfully light-hearted talk”, then suggested it was rare to hear anything light-hearted from a psychologist!

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