Perceptual Adaption At Work
Just a quick observation... I often work on my PhD stuff at a local coffeeshop, and sometimes it's a bit nosiy so I listen to music on headphones...
at first I have to have the music fairly loud to block out the other sounds enough but there's a quite noticable difference that occurs after some amount of time -- I dunno, maybe 5-10 minutes -- where the music sounds a lot louder and I can turn it down a fair bit but still effectively block out the sounds.
The transition is not that noticable, but that there has been a change (no doubt a gradual one) is. What seems to be happening is that my brain is adapting to the headphone sounds, and getting better at focusing on them and at filtering out the other sounds.
Interesting observation. I should practice that. I don’t like listening to loud music while working and my brain can’t handle filtering out crap that constantly keeps flooding my ears.
ReplyDeleteI guess if I keep on practicing it one day I can just wear the headphones and without any music I will be able concentrate on my work. Okay, maybe I am stretching it too far. Time to go home.