cocktail party effect
Noise-filtering attention
The cocktail party effect is the brain's ability to focus on a single conversation amid background noise—as at a crowded party where multiple conversations compete for attention.
The term extends to any selective filtering of auditory input: Even in the noisy café, the cocktail party effect let me follow what she was saying.
- cherry pickingUsing only favorable examples
- tune outDeliberately stop attending
- filter outSelectively block passage
- selective attentionFiltering relevant from irrelevant
- signal-to-noise ratioWanted versus background level
auditory memory · dichotic listening · masking · psychoacoustics · listening fatigue · semantic processing · noise suppression · uproar · jangle · background noise · discord · shuffling · name recognition · working memory · prefrontal cortex · neural plasticity · executive function · multitasking
cocktail party effectsensory overload
Excessive simultaneous stimulation
information overload · distraction · overstimulation · introverted · subdued
cocktail party effectdeaf
Unable to hear
deafness · silence · sensory deprivation · hearing loss · quiet
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