From Rick Altman, "Television/Sound" in Studies in Entertainment:

Critical Approaches to Mass Culture, ed. Tania Modleski, Bloomington: Indiana U. Press, 1986. 43

...In the Western world sound its nearly always taken to be incomplete; it seems to call for identification with a visible source.

Television has accustomed us to a high degree of return on our audio-visual investment; we are quite confident that television will show us the source of the sound, if only we rush in from the kitchen fast enough.

We are used to the sense of wholeness that this arrangement assures. When we hear a sound, we find its source on the screen, thus giving us a sense of presence, of resolution, 46.