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Friday, April 11, 2014

C is for Cocktail Party Effect


Of late, I can see myself being consumed by so many thoughts that never transpired like this before. Unlike my childhood days, I have become incompetent beyond compare to brew my attention and focus it on one direction. And many times now, I have realized that even the slightest noise of my friend’s cough in the next room is enough to dissipate my concentration. Consequently, it has undoubtedly made me believe that one key organelle of my Cocktail Party Effect’ system has been impaired as a result of which the total system has collapsed fatally.

Coined by the English cognitive scientist Colin Cherry in 1953, ‘Cocktail Party Effect’ is a phenomenon in which a person is able to focus the attention on a particular stimulus among many other stimuli occurring at the same time. For instance, a person who is capable to listen to a single conversation inside a noisy party hall is one perfect analogy of this spectacle.

Besides, there is another setting that can help us understand more about this terminology. 

 Understanding the Cocktail Party Effect   Courtesy: Click the LINK

Occasionally, when we talk with our friends in the presence of other people around, we often hear their conversation too, even if we don’t attend to it. In such circumstances, our attention box is often disturbed when we suddenly hear something that is of our importance or similarity, for example hearing the name of our beloved friend or a famous actor or anything else.    
  
The studies reveal that the ‘cocktail party effect’ person is capable of tuning their attention frequency and filtering all those unrelated. They can sieve the kind of things they are interested in and bottleneck their attention within a narrow passage. In doing so, they can channel their right attention to the right target.

But what’s happening to poor me these days? The entire hive of my attention is getting disturbed even with the silent footsteps of the breeze. This is rather funny and miserably humiliating.  

“I love the attention but I don't like too much of it”- Eminem

6 comments:

  1. No, not humiliating! To me, it sounded like scientists were interested in studying this phenomenon because it shows that, when people are bombarded with so much to take in, they may focus on something over there, forgetting about everything else. It's important in relation to driving cars and things...fascinating stuff!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for the remarks. I am seriously under different kinds of thinking these days. Hehe

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  2. Yes...definitely facinating stuff!
    Every time I visit your fabulous blog, I find such food for thought...my cogs are positively spinning with this one.

    Thank you so much for sharing your amazing talent with us, Dumcho.
    You are the greatest teacher...:)

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for your regular visits. I am humbled to receive so much of your compliments and I will live up to your expectations to be one. You are indeed an amazing blogger friend of mine for all times to come.
      God bless you.

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  3. It is indeed a fascinating article you have written Dumcho, this is something we all take for granted and don't realise that it carries such an elaborate label as 'cocktail party effect' (which is quite fitting) nor did I know that this behaviour has actually been studied :) I don't think there is anything wrong with you accept that you probably just need to find a quite place in nature and become one with the self to regain your balance. This behaviour you have written of is very much like multi- tasking which is all good and well to say a person can multitask but not all the tasks can be done as well or with the best attention.
    I love your phrases, very poetic! And if you can hear the footsteps of the wind then it is perhaps willing you to follow :)

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    Replies
    1. Categorically speaking, I am encouraged when a prolific writers in and around the world step their mouse into the ring of my blog and drop the beads of inspiration. I am humbled and I have learned so much from each of them.
      I am encouraged when people around read through my scribblings and make a reflective comments. Thank you Ms. Rose for the comments.

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