If, while processing the meaning of the message your mind begins to wander (I call this “mind drift”) your sketchpad may start drawing pictures related to your drift (i.e., day dreaming).
If the message is one that you do not want to hear (or don’t enjoy listening to) you may tune it out. If the sender of the message is boring, you may begin to tune them out. However, even when you have only one thing to listen to (i.e., only one person talking to you), it is possible to selectively listen to the message. Thus, attention is given to one auditory input at a time. You can shift attention (quickly) between sensory inputs (giving the illusion of multitasking) but the sketchpad cannot be shared. The human brain is incapable of paying simultaneous attention to multiple incoming inputs. If you don’t know this already (search and read the previous articles I’ve written about it), multitasking when it comes to paying attention is a myth. Under such conditions, the sketchpad is formed to prioritize what it will sketch. You can imagine how busy the sketchpad can get, especially when you are operating in environments with multiple (often competing) audible inputs. There is only one sketchpad for drawing the meaning of audible information.
This draws the image of an ice cream cone on your mental sketchpad. When someone says “ice cream cone” you visualize, in your mind, what those words mean. This is, in part, how you comprehend the meaning of audible messages. Have you ever been in a conversation where you, or the other person asks: “Do you see what I’m saying?” Or states in the affirmative: “I see what you mean!” Indeed, we do see audible messages. The entire sentence was heard, but the entire sentence was not comprehended. When, in fact, it would be impossible for the child to block some of the sound waves of that same sentence from entering their ear canal.
One of the findings, which isn’t all too surprising, is we listen to what we want to hear (the enjoyable message) and tune out what we don’t want to hear (the unenjoyable message).įor example, if a parent tells their child: “Clean up your room and you’ll get an ice cream cone.” It may seem the child only heard they were getting ice cream. What you choose to listen toĪ great deal of scientific research has been dedicated to trying to understand what people choose to listen to. Yet people seemingly are able to sort out those sounds (inside the brain) and pick and choose which sounds they want to listen to. It would be nearly impossible for a person to control which sounds reach their ear canal. In other words, hearing happens on the OUTSIDE of the brain and listening happens on the INSIDE of the brain. Listening, in the context of this discussion, relates to comprehending the meaning of what is heard. Unless you are wearing earmuffs or earplugs, chances are a sound within hearing distance will enter your ear canal and stimulate the eardrum. Think of hearing as the mechanical process of sounds entering your ears. This can cause issues with situational awareness.īefore I get too deep into this discussion, I want to distinguish the difference between listening and hearing. Because first responders frequently operate in environments where there are multiple auditory inputs (e.g., radio traffic, face-to-face communications, ambient sounds, etc.) they are often forced to prioritize what they listen to (or don’t listen to).
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