The Count’s song from Sesame Street is a great example of the phonemic restoration effect. Phonemic restoration effect is “perceptual phenomenon where under certain conditions, sounds actually missing from a speech signal can be ‘filled in’ by the brain and clearly heard.” (Psychology Concepts). How does this relate to a kid’s show like Sesame Street, well if you take a look at the video posted below you should realize that the count is a vampire, so as vampires like to do, they like to suck your blood.

However add in the beeping sound that often accompanies curse works on television and add in the fact you can only here the “uck” over the beeping.  It is very easy to mistake the word for the F-word.  Even better, as your brain factors in the context of him being a vampire and how the rest of his words are quite actually highly ambiguous  in terms of using the word ‘Suck’ or  ‘F-word’. It is possible to determine that the real word is in fact meant to be ‘suck’ and not the ‘F word’.

My next point was going to be an example using the lyrics right away, but I found the uncensored version on accident because I just assumed they were all censored. And it would seem that he’s actually saying the word ‘Count’.  The beeping is so complete that you’re tricked into thinking you hear the ‘uck’ which of course because it’s censored beeping you add an F.  And again because of the context that he’s a vampire, you think oh they must really mean suck despite the ambiguous language in the song allowing you to perceive it as the ‘F-word’. But I lacked a bit of context of my own in that I didn’t really watch sesame street as a child nor do I have any reason to watch it today, so I’m not 100% familiar with everyone’s role, so I missed the context that the count is the count because he loves to count.  While the words aren’t similar I still consider this a great example because you honestly don’t know what he’s saying when it’s censored and if you listen to it, you start to realize that there is a perceived word and how quickly your mind decides that you actually heard the ‘F-word’ instead when it’s just not true.

Link to the count’s song censored:

References:

Goldstein, E. B. (2011). Cognitive Psychology; Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience (Vol. 3). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Phonemic Restoration Effect. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2016, from http://www.psychologyconcepts.com/phonemic-restoration-effect/

(2008). The Count Censored. Retrieved November 20, 2016, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Wd-Q3F8KM