Summary: The Cocktail Party Effect

Per the website, Psychology.wikia, the cocktail party effect is an example of selective attention and is the phenomenon of being able to focus one's auditory attention on a stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli, much the same way that a partygoer can focus on a single conversation in a noisy room. This effect is what allows most people to "tune in" to a single voice and "tune out" all others. It may also describe a similar phenomenon that occurs when one may immediately detect words of importance originating from unattended stimuli, for instance hearing one's name in

In mainstream American society, we tend to approach deafness as a defect. Helen Keller is alleged to have said, "Blindness cuts people off from things; deafness cuts people off from people." (rnib.org) This seems a very accurate description of what Keller's world must have been. We as hearing people tend to pity deaf people, or, if they succeed in the hearing world, admire them for overcoming a severe handicap. We tend to look at signing as an inferior substitute for "real" communication. We assume that all deaf people will try to lip-read and we applaud deaf people who use their voices to show us how far they have come from the grips of their disability. Given this climate, many hearing people are surprised, as I was at

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I chose the task of being deaf for about 4 hours which I thought may be the easer and safest option for me but I was quickly surprised that being able to hear contributes to so many things in my life. For example not being able to hear my kids call me when they say mom was sad because a mother will always know there child’s voice even if she’s in the middle of Time Square on New Year’s. Therefore not being able to come to their aid quickly was my biggest challenge. I wasn’t able to laugh at the things that they were laughing at when we watched our family movie. I couldn’t do my job at work of answering my customer’s phone calls because I couldn’t hear. I was afraid to drive because I was scared that I wouldn’t hear

In Alice-Ann Darrow’s article “Teaching Students with Hearing Losses” she states that it can be difficult to involve students with hearing losses in the music classroom and in the regular classroom as well. There are a numerous amount of students with hearing losses ranging from the ages of six to twenty-one. About 71,000 of special education students struggle with a hearing loss. A majority of students go without knowing that they have a hearing problem. Although most people believe that a person must be good at hearing in order to be musical, it is stated to be not true. The music classroom is actually a great place for students to practice good listening skills. Since listening is a mental process and hearing is a physical. Objectives for hard at hearing students should include listening to music, singing, playing instruments, moving to music, creating music and reading music. Music should be presented to the student’s strength and preferences. It is also helpful to have students feel stereo speakers or instruments as well as the use of kinesthetic movements. Alice-Ann Darrow believes that involving students with hearing losses into the music class room can be difficult but in the long run beneficial to the student.

The cocktail-party effect was investigated in early studies of selective attention. It was first described by Cherry (1953). It’s the observation that even in a noisy environment people are able to focus their attention on who is talking to them. Cherry (1953) investigated this phenomenon by conducting a series of dichotic listening and

The deaf community does not see their hearing impairment as a disability but as a culture which includes a history of discrimination, racial prejudice, and segregation. According to PBS home video “Through Deaf Eyes,” there are thirty-five million Americans that are hard of hearing (Hott, Garey & et al., 2007) . Out of the thirty-five million an estimated 300,000 people are completely deaf. There are over ninety percent of deaf people who have hearing parents. Also, most deaf parents have hearing children. With this being the exemplification, deaf people communicate on a more intimate and significant level with hearing people all their lives. “Deaf people can be found in every ethnic group, every region, and every economic class.” The

I struggled to listen to the instructor and found myself having to work very hard to understand her then about an hour into class I began to lose focus and stopped paying attention. In this instance, I empathized with the children who have an unidentified hearing loss and struggle to pay attention in school. These children are often identified as having attention and behavior issues when in reality their hearing is the problem. This further emphasized the importance of services such as hearing aids, FM systems or other amplification methods to ensure that these children do not have to work so hard to understand

Could you picture yourself growing up as in a world where everyone treated you differently or thought that you were stupid just because you are unable to hear? Well Mark Drolsbaugh experienced that first hand. He explains his story of how he dealt with his hearing loss in his novel Deaf Again. The book begins with a small child who could hear just fine, but as the story progresses he becomes hard of hearing and eventually deaf. All this happens with in a couple of years. Mark realized that he had a hearing problem in the first grade when he was presenting a toy for show and tell. Another student asked him a question about his item, but he was so far away Mark was unable to hear him. Mark's respond was a blank stare at the boy. The

While I was familiar with some of the genetic causes of deafness, I never thought about what it actually meant to be someone who was living with the condition. Learning more about the deaf community I was surprised to learn that many deaf parents also want deaf children. I was also able to see case studies discussed in depth and hear

Students with Hearing Losses The article, Teaching Students with Hearing Losses by Alice-Ann Darrow explains the objections and strategies for students who has hearing losses. Alice-Ann Darrow stated her argument, “Many music educators are not sure what instructional methods and strategies to use with students whose hearing is limited” (27). Then, she goes on telling her personal experiences that there has been “most” teachers have difficulty teaching music for those students. She also explained how people who believe in musical needs to have a good hearing, but little do people know that people with great hearing cannot do well in music too.

The deaf community does not see their hearing impairment as a disability but as a culture which includes a history of discrimination, racial prejudice, and segregation. According to an online transcript,“Through Deaf Eyes” (Weta and Florentine films/Hott productions Inc., 2007) there are thirty-five million Americans that are hard of hearing. Out of the thirty-five million an estimated 300,000 people are completely deaf. There are ninety percent of deaf people who have hearing parents (Halpern, C., 1996). Also, most deaf parents have hearing children. With this being the exemplification, deaf people communicate on a more intimate and significant level with hearing people all their lives. “Deaf people can be found in every ethnic group,

Learning music as a student with hearing loss can be difficult just as teaching a student with hearing losses can be also. There are many children who are being diagnosed with hearing losses almost every day. In the article, “Teaching Students with Hearing Losses,” by Alice-Ann Darrow, an Irvin Cooper Professor of Music Education and Music Therapy at Florida State University, Tallahassee conveyed a message that students with hearing losses are capable of learning music. When hearing the words “hearing losses” you automatically jumped to conclusion that they can’t hear anything at all however that is wrong. Darrow stated in her article that, “Very few individuals have no hearing at all however most students who are described deaf do have some

I also want to briefly point out the range of hearing impairments that a child can have. Even though a child may not be classified as “profoundly impaired” or deaf, this does not mean that the child will not face several of the obstacles a deaf child does. Therefore, even though this site is taken from a “worse case scenario” perspective, many of the methods and therapy situations may apply to those with less severe impairments.

Those not thoroughly educated in communication tend to confuse the terms “hearing” and “listening.” Although they appear to mean the same thing, utilize the same body part, and are both required for functional communication, there is a great difference between these two actions. Hearing involves the perception of sound using the ears, while listening is based upon giving attention to the sound being perceived. Additionally, because these concepts are different, there are also several different ways of improving hearing and listening. Thus, there are several differences between these two concepts, and it is important to signify these differences in order to practice effective communication.