The ability to hyper-focus on one stream of sound amid a cacophony of others is what researchers call the "cocktail-party effect." You're at a party. Music is playing. Glasses are clinking. Dozens of conversations are driving up the decibel level. Yet amid all those distractions, you can zero in on the one conversation you want to hear.
Now, scientists at the University of California in San Francisco have pinpointed where that sound-editing process occurs in the brain—in the auditory cortex just behind the ear, not in areas of higher thought. The auditory cortex boosts some sounds and turns down others so that when the signal reaches the higher brain, "it's as if only one person was speaking alone," says principle investigator Edward Chang.
These findings, published in the journal Nature, underscore why people aren't very good at multitasking—our brains are wired for "selective attention" and can focus on only one thing at a time. That innate ability has helped humans survive in a world buzzing with visual and auditory stimulation.
But we keep trying to push the limits with multitasking, sometimes with tragic consequences. Drivers talking on cellphones, for example, are four times as likely to get into traffic accidents as those who aren't.
Many of those accidents are due to "inattentional blindness," in which people can, in effect, turn a blind eye to things they aren't focusing on. Images land on our retinas and are either boosted or played down in the visual cortex before being passed to the brain, just as the auditory cortex filters sounds, as shown in the Nature study. "It's a push-pull relationship—the more we focus on one thing, the less we can focus on others," says Diane M. Beck, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Illinois.
And it isn't just that sights and sounds compete for the brain's attention. All the sensory inputs vie to become the mind's top priority.
Some people can train themselves to pay extra attention to things that are important—like police officers learn to scan crowds for faces and conductors can listen for individual instruments within the orchestra as a whole.
• Recognize your limitations. The brain can only fully attend to one thing at a time.
• Make your senses work together. If you're trying to listen to someone in a noisy room, look directly at the speaker.
• Focus on what's important. Many professions—from pilots to police officers—depend on keen powers of observation. Training and practice help.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, April 24, 2012
Only when we become aware of something, are we able to make choices as to the action we wish to take.
Sometimes, just being aware, allows the problem to solve us--rather than requiring us to solve the problem.
Here is a mental model to use in your world:
- Beliefs influence perception.
- Perception structures reality.
- Reality suggests possibilities.
- Possibilities generate choices.
- Choices initiate actions.
- Actions affect outcomes.
- Outcomes impact beliefs.
- Awareness facilitates change.
Source: Author unknown
John G Agno: Women, Know Thyself: The most important knowledge is self-knowledge.