I hypothesize what’s going on is segmentation. As you hear noise, your brain segments the waveforms into phonemes. The beginning of this soundclip is ambiguous: it might sound like it starts with /y/, or it might sound like it starts with /l/, and /l/ ends later than the /y/. I think the /l/, if you hear it, ends later than the /y/ if you hear that. Once you’ve picked the initial phoneme, then the rest of the segmentation follows; all the breaks are in different places for Yanny than for Laurel.
Once your brain goes down the Yanny (or Laurel) path, it’s difficult to re-analyze to Laurel (or Yanny).
The slider in this article is great for time-wasting. Where do you switch? I switch one or two clicks to the Yanny side, but in that range I sometimes hear Yanny and sometimes Laurel, depending on what I heard the last time.
@kelsmom I find that by prepping my mind for what I’m going to hear right ( saying the word to myself a few times) at the point I get a switch, I can get the voice to alternate. It’s so weird
Did anyone try the one that says “Green Needle” vs “Brainstorm?” The phrase you say or think to yourself before you hear it is the one you hear. (Supposedly. It worked for my kids, but I had a hard time hearing anything but “Green Needle.”)
When I saw this title of this thread, I thought it was from a kid trying to decide whether to attend colleges named Yanny or Laural. I was excited to learn about some new schools!