

How Attention Goes Wrong - fogus
http://www.spring.org.uk/2009/04/18-ways-attention-goes-wrong.php

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thaumaturgy
I have the "cocktail party problem". When in a noisy or crowded environment,
it's nearly impossible for me to figure out what the person in front of me is
saying. Even if I concentrate on them, what I get instead is an unintelligible
cacophony of sound, with bits of conversation coming in and out of focus all
around me.

I've tried resorting to lip reading, but I'm not that good at it.

Now I usually just get quiet and flee.

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roc
Ditto that. In a fairly calm environment I have pretty good hearing. I
regularly pick up faint sounds that other people around me don't.

But add any chaos, say in a bar, and I'm pretty close to functionally deaf. I
can give a drink order to a bartender and not even hear _myself_ actually
speak it, let alone hear them tell me how much the round costs.

I run tabs a lot.

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thaumaturgy
Yes, same for me in picking up faint sounds. I spend a bit of time hiking and
the like, and can tell from the sound of a rustle of leaves whether there was
a squirrel, a raccoon, or a deer.

I _think_ what's going on is that neurologically, my attention is always
diverted by _new_ sounds. If it's quiet and suddenly something crinkles or
shuffles, I hear it extremely clearly. I use this to my advantage -- I have my
cell phones set to a very faint single "beep" for their ringtone. It drives
other people mad because I'll suddenly get up and go to the phone or dig in my
pocket, and they never heard it go off. It's even woke me from a dead sleep.

In a natural environment, this would be a pretty useful trait to have, but in
artificial environments, all the sounds are "new" and I can't make heads or
tails of what's going on.

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snitko
Interesting overview of attention disorders, but a misleading title. I though
it'd be more about distractions affecting healthy people and how to overcome
them, not about disorders.

