The cocktail party effect is the brain's ability to focus attention on one particular sound, such as a single conversation, while filtering out competing background noise, allowing a person to follow one voice among many with relative ease. It is achieved through selective attention, in which the brain processes all of the incoming sound but consciously directs awareness only to whichever stimulus matters most at that moment.
Facts
Core ClaimSourced to the subject's own accountThe brain can focus attention on one auditory stream, such as a single conversation, and exclude competing sounds from conscious awareness even in a noisy environment carrying many simultaneous voices. 1 First Described YearSourced to the subject's own account Connections
Sources
1. Cocktail Party Effect (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead section, paragraph 1
The cocktail party effect is a phenomenon wherein the brain focuses a person's attention on a particular stimulus, usually auditory. This focus excludes a range of other stimuli from conscious awareness, as when a partygoer follows a single conversation in a noisy room.
Early work section, paragraph 1
The effect was first defined and named "the cocktail party problem" by Colin Cherry in 1953.
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