"[N]early all participants — including highly trained musicians — were better able to identify the winners of competitions by watching silent video clips than by listening to audio recordings. (...) “It’s a very counterintuitive finding — there have been some interesting reactions from musicians,” Tsay said. “What this suggests is that there may be a way that visual information is prioritized over information from other modalities. In this case, it suggests that the visual trumps the audio, even in a setting where audio information should matter much more.” Tsay herself has performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and said it was her experience in classical music competitions that piqued her interest in visual vs. audio information. (...) People had a lower chance of identifying the eventual winner if they only listened to the sound,” Tsay said. “People who just had the video — even without the sound — had surprisingly high rates of selecting the actual winner. Even with professional musicians, who are trained to use sound, and who have both expertise and experience, it appeared that the visual information was overriding the sound.” Because musical differences between two top performers are often slight, viewers can more easily pick up on visual cues they associate with high-quality performance." - Amira

I love that dress.. Looks so beautiful and elegant.. - Nevanta Media

I'm thinking the problem is more in the idea that there can be single winner, that's there's a one quality that defines a winning performance. It would be more realistic to say there's a family of performers that are defined by their performance being of a winning quality. - Todd Hoff