That phrase - "Can you hear me now?" - is popular in ads for a cell phone server, and now even in jokes. Everyone seems to recognize the phrase.
I think one of the interesting things is to consider it from a psychological viewpoint. For example, if a person is in a group, even a noisy group, but hears his/her own name, why is it more likely that they'll recognize their own name, even if no one else does?
You can ask your friends, "Did someone just call my name?" And they probably didn't notice it. But you probably did. It's called the "cocktail party effect." (Lots of research has been done on this, from the original by Colin Cherry in 1953 to more recent research by Adelbert Bronkhorst in 2000.) When I teach this concept in the classroom to young twenty-somethings, I refer to it as "the keg party effect," since I don't think they're too familiar with the concept of a "cocktail party"!
So if you're talking to friends, even if it's pretty loud, and someone calls your name, you're likely to hear it. So why did YOU hear your own name?
Ah, time for social psychology to kick in. (Yet another bump for taking an online psychology course - of course, ideally, at Granite State College!)
Okay, here goes: We are more tuned in to things that are important to us. It's called egocentrism. It doesn't mean you're "stuck up." It just means that you orient yourself as the center of your own interests.
Well, who doesn't? And when do you not do this?
That's a huge challenge for psychology to dissect. When is self-interest just - well - selfish? And when is it explainable by considering the things we expect to consider with regard to ourselves? Some current thought even suggests that the only way to get attention in the post 9/11 world may be to take extreme measures. And of course, that also includes the actual 9/11 tactic of blowing up the World Trade Center to draw attention to a goal. This was discussed in an interesting article by Neal Gabler, which appeared in the Boston Globe recently, entitled, "Screaming extremism." (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/04/24/screaming_extremism/_
The world of learning is an exciting world. It never fails to challenge. Maybe that voice inside is asking you, "Can you hear me now?"
I think one of the interesting things is to consider it from a psychological viewpoint. For example, if a person is in a group, even a noisy group, but hears his/her own name, why is it more likely that they'll recognize their own name, even if no one else does?
You can ask your friends, "Did someone just call my name?" And they probably didn't notice it. But you probably did. It's called the "cocktail party effect." (Lots of research has been done on this, from the original by Colin Cherry in 1953 to more recent research by Adelbert Bronkhorst in 2000.) When I teach this concept in the classroom to young twenty-somethings, I refer to it as "the keg party effect," since I don't think they're too familiar with the concept of a "cocktail party"!
So if you're talking to friends, even if it's pretty loud, and someone calls your name, you're likely to hear it. So why did YOU hear your own name?
Ah, time for social psychology to kick in. (Yet another bump for taking an online psychology course - of course, ideally, at Granite State College!)
Okay, here goes: We are more tuned in to things that are important to us. It's called egocentrism. It doesn't mean you're "stuck up." It just means that you orient yourself as the center of your own interests.
Well, who doesn't? And when do you not do this?
That's a huge challenge for psychology to dissect. When is self-interest just - well - selfish? And when is it explainable by considering the things we expect to consider with regard to ourselves? Some current thought even suggests that the only way to get attention in the post 9/11 world may be to take extreme measures. And of course, that also includes the actual 9/11 tactic of blowing up the World Trade Center to draw attention to a goal. This was discussed in an interesting article by Neal Gabler, which appeared in the Boston Globe recently, entitled, "Screaming extremism." (http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/04/24/screaming_extremism/_
The world of learning is an exciting world. It never fails to challenge. Maybe that voice inside is asking you, "Can you hear me now?"
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