Sergio Carr
Currently tasked with researching the effect of familiar sounds (cocktail party effect) on congnitive ablity.
Research Materials
executive summary
sources
cocktail party effect 3
Sergio Carr
March 7, 2008
Cognitive Psychology 334
Cocktail Party Effect
Have you ever been at a party and while you were there you happened to come across one of your friends and began to converse with them and block out all the other noises even though all these other distractions were happening all around you? This phenomenon is known as the “cocktail party effect“. The power to be able to focus on one person while other things are going on in your surroundings is one of the greatest techniques of the human brain. Understanding how we are able to do this and what can break it is a profound mystery in psychology. Using the cocktail effect on computers has also brought about its challenges. Plus understanding when at what age we gain this is ability is another study within itself. The term “cocktail party effect” means the ability to focus one’s listening attention on a single talker among other conversations and background noise. Some of the more earlier works in this research area dates back to the 1950s, when problems came about with air traffic controllers. During these times air traffic controllers received messages from pilots over a loudspeaker. They heard many different voices coming from different pilots in different locations. As anyone who has ever tried to focus there attention to just one voice in the midst of others may know talking to them, staying attentive to just one person can become somewhat challenging. They have now come up with different machines and technology that allows the air traffic controller to be able to hear pilots calling in and be able to identify what direction he or she is coming from and how far they are. In some researches done on the cocktail party effect they have taken participants and given them a set of headphones to put on their ears. In one ear they were to listen to a conversation going on that they were involved in and in the other ear block out the unnecessary information in the background. In this experiment they found that the participant had no problem blocking out the unnecessary information in one ear while tuning their attention to the other ear. Also they tried switching the meaningful conversation from ear to ear during the experiment; this also proved useless, finding that the participant was able to switch focus from ear to ear at will. In another experiment, the language signal in the ignored ear was switch from English to another language, they found that most of the subjects did not know the difference. Things such as gender, when switch in the headphones of the rejected ear, was noticed as well as a change to pure tones. Along with the cocktail party effect there are certain things that can break our line of focus when trying to be attentive to a particular person. If talking to someone about your recent vacation and suddenly you hear your name being said across the room, you will automatically turn your attention to the person speaking about you on the other side of the room. Now although they may have not have just started talking and the first thing out of their mouth was your name, your ability to block out their conversation was with the use of the “cocktail party effect” but your name was something that broke your line of focus to the conversation that you were having. Although we have the gift of having two ears we are only able to focus on one thing at a time. With relatively new technology such as computer we are trying to figure out how to allow the computer to write down what you say. One problem with this is background noise. Unlike humans, computers do not have the ability focus on just one person’s voice at a time. Noisy environments and people are mixed in with the actual person’s voice which confuses the computers and messes up what the person is trying to say. There has been research done to one day allow computers to be able to focus on just one voice and ignore others. One of the more difficult question in the view of the cocktail party effect is when at what do we gain the ability to use it? The ability to be able to use the “cocktail party effect” involves streaming. Streaming is the technique in which someone is able to separate different streams of speech from each other. When we are infants we hear everything going on around us; from the television set to your older brothers and sisters playing in the room next door. How are we then able to focus on our caregiver who is teaches us how to talk? To stream involves the uses of both sensitive auditory system and the ability to selectively attend given information. This technique is not quiet fully develop in infants yet which makes it hard for them to block other noises. Infants are able to somewhat block out other distracting background noises and focus of a certain individual if the individual is louder than the background noises at around 7.5 months of age. They are able to hear their names in quite places at around 4.5 months of age. In this research on the cocktail party effect I have come across many interesting things about the human brain and ears and the way they both operate. Our ability to block out information and be attentive to our own conversation is phenomenal and quiet profound; especially so because we have found is difficult to give this trait to a computer. I have come to realize how important it is to have this ability knowing that otherwise it would be greatly difficult to carry on a long conversation with someone in a noisy environment. I have found that infants have a more challenging time focusing on a single person because their auditory system and brain is not as developed as adults. This research has showed me that this technique we have is both valuable and very much necessary, and that we should learn more about it that we can further improve upon it.
Works Cited
Arons, B. A Review of The Cocktail Party Effect. MIT Media Lab. Retrieved February 16, 2008, from http://www.media.mit.edu/speech/papers/199 2/arons_AVIOSJ92_cocktail_party_effect.pdf
Beyond the cocktail party. (headphones simulate selective ability of human ear). Scott Faber. Discover 15. N6 (June 1994): p.p39(1). (710 words) From General OneFile.
Newman, R. S. (2005). The Cocktail Party Effect in Infants Revisited: Listening to One's Name in Noise. American Psychological Association, 41(2), 352-362.
Headline text
The Cocktail Party Effect 2
The fascinating thing about human beings is that though we have two ears it becomes a challenge to focus on listening to more than one sound or source at a time. As human beings it is hard to focus on two or more noises going on at once in your surroundings. For example, listening to your friend talk to you while loud music is being played around you, or even seemingly simply tasks such as counting money can become harder to focus on when someone is saying your name constantly or trying to talk to you. Our ability to be able to block out one thing going on and applying your attention to what you want to listen to is a great phenomenon is known as the “Cocktail Party Effect“. We can see how, through the use of the cocktail party effect theory, that multitasking in certain situations can be dangerous. Although this is great skill that humans have, the ability to block out noise and focus on more important aspects going on in our surroundings, we are not the only species that use this special technique to their advantage. Our ability to use the cocktail party effect (CPE) involves a technique that most people are not even aware they are doing. When we are having conversations with people and loud noises are in the environment, whether it be music or just other conversations going on, we are taking in all of the words being given. Our ability to be able to filter the non-useful information we are receiving and retain the important information given by the person you are speaking with is known as streaming. When we stream information, we are taking the words given us by what the person talking to us is saying, processing the information in our brains and then making sense to what he or she is telling us even though there are so many words being spoke all around us at one time. Our gift to be enabled to stream information is what helps us to use the C.P.E. In other instances we use the cocktail party effect without even thinking about it or even trying to. An example would be in such a case as when someone is walking home and it is late, there start to hear foot steps; the person hearing the footsteps is able to decipher whether those footsteps are close to them or further away. Now even though they hear other things going on in their environment they are able to focus on what they want or what is closer to them. The cocktail party effect can, in many ways, be related to selective hearing. Although, as humans, we only have the ability to give undivided attention one thing, the great part about this is we are able to apply ourselves to what it is we want to listen to and to do so with great focus. In a variety of different ways the cocktail party effect is linked to so many other cognitive audio and even visual functions; such as talking on the phone while driving. If the cocktail party effect “theory” is true then when you are talking on the phone and driving at the same time information is being given to you, by both the person on the cell phone and by the road you are driving, and in the case of streaming information, one of those things you are doing is going to be given less attention than the other. And if you look at this situation through the cocktail party effect we can see why it is even more dangerous to drive and talk on a phone simultaneously. Since the cocktail party effect technique is so useful it makes all the more sense to see why animals use the skill too. In a study given on midshipman fish, biologists have found how they put this amazing skill to use in their mating process. The midshipman male fish has a tactic that they use to get a midshipman female fish to come to them and have them lay their eggs so they can fertilize them. What the male fish do to attract the female fish is simply…hum. Biologist have found that the midshipman male fish has a sort of vocal pacemaker that allows them to hum a rhyme at 100Hz in frequency, ironically, that is the same as what the female midshipman fish respond to. They females are then able to locate the fish who makes the hum that intrigues her the most and lay her eggs with him. This is another instance on how the cocktail party effect works. There are many ways we use the cocktail party effect in our lives and in some cases not even think about it. This tactic is a very useful one in helping us to become more attentive to one another even in places where that can become difficult. The cocktail party effect has also shown that multitasking in certain situations can become dangerous and that we should allow ourselves to focus on one situation at a time. And in the case of other species in our world, the cocktail party effect is just another means of living, multiplying and surviving.
Works Cited
Cornell University (1998, July 3). The Cocktail Party Effect: Fish And Human Brains Perform 'Auditory Scene Analysis' When Looking For Love In All The Loud Places. ScienceDaily.
Lee, A. K. Brain Attending a Cocktail Party. Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology Retrieved April 17, 2008, from http://ocw.mit.edu/NR/rdonlyres/Health-Sciences-and-Technology/HST-722JF all-2005/7A1A2131-73AE-48A2-85B9-7DE563C91EA4/0/cocktailparty.pdf
Pratt, H. (2000). Language and Reading as Specific Cases and Specializations of Auditory Scene Analysis: Neurophysiologic Evidence. Brain and Language, 71, 190-193.
