Cocktail party effect 3
Sergio Carr April 25, 2008 Cognitive Psychology
Cocktail Party Effect 3
In our surroundings there are so many different distractions going on at once; from people going on with other conversations to music blaring in the background. How we ignore these disturbing noises and focus on what we want to is a great gift known as the cocktail party effect. There are many ways in which we ignore and filter non-useful information and also ways in which we can train our brain to stay attentive to what or who we are listening to. And although humans have this ability it is not just limited to people but animals use it in their everyday lives also. Our ability to block out background noises and concentrate on our own conversations is made possible because of the fact that we have two ears and information or noises are received to each of them are different times. This is known as spatial sounds which allow you to focus on noises that are closer to the ear you are listening from. A comparison of this would be how when a bright light is cut on and the brain sends a message to the pupil in the eye telling it to let in less light; same as when our spatial hearing blocks out less noises in order to focus on what we want to. This also shows why having hearing ability in only one ear becomes more of a challenge if you are in a place where there are a lot of environmental distraction going on.
Although we can see that this ability is great for humans to have in performing interactions with one another in loud environments we also find that animals, namely the king penguin, use this in their interactions with one another as well. The king penguin, like humans, are able to stream through other noises in order to communicate with one another. The king penguins live in large colonies totaling from the hundresds to the thousands and higher. A way in which they use this technique is this; in order for the king penguin chick to get nourishment and be fed from his or her parent, they must be able to distinguish a high amplitude sound given by their parents in a rather noisy environment. And although if this may sound easy, the difficult part is that there are more king penguin parents making the same noise at the same time trying to their own young. Even at long distances the chicks are still able to find their parents even if their parents call is at a lower frequency than the others.
The way our brain’s filter out information that is deemed useless to us and focus on the information we want to is something that is commonly studied in the field of psychology. Some psychologist have noted that it is possible train our brains to use the cocktail party effect even better and that streaming information is not something that were just simply born with but takes practice. For example, young children have a harder time blocking out other conversations and background noises, like the siblings playing around, and listening to the conversation that they are in with someone else. They are not even able to completely stream information until around the ages of 7 to 14 months of age; and even then if someone or something in the background is louder than the person speaking the child’s attention can stray.
The cocktail party effect is a huge phenomenon that has great significance in our lives. Without this gift it would be virtually impossible to carry on a conversation with someone in a noisy environment and since there is noise around us all the time talking to your friends would be an even greater challenge than it would normally. Having a deficiency such as loss of earring in one ear is also a problem when using the cocktail party effect because you lose some of your ability to stream information. We also see that animals, like the king penguin, use this to function and essentially survive in world where there are many different distractions and noises much as the same level as their parent. I believe the cocktail party effect plays an important role in our lives that we have no idea about. I am grateful that we have this ability to stream information and I hope we do more to learn more about it.
Works Cited
Huehueteol. (2007, November 19). Left Brain Helps Understanding In Noisy Environment.
Neuroscience, 5 pp. 1-52
Thierry, A et al. (May 18, 1998). Cocktail-party effect in king penguin colonies.
The Royal Society, 1665-1673.
"Train your Brain to Hear your Friends at a Party." Medical News Today. 8 Oct. 2006.
