Widely-judged a 'man thing,' if there's a crisis in traffic, a man's first move is to turn down the volume on the radio in the car: 'I cannot think with all this noise!'
You already know the effect is real and I'm sure women do the same thing so here's the actual science behind it. (Science Daily: Driving or talking? The brain concentrates on one thing at a time)
Their research shows there's active change in your brain in such a circumstance. Not only is your subjective experience that 'I cannot think with that noise,' the brain is actively reducing your ability to perceive the sound so it can fully devote attention to the immediate circumstance.
That may seem as if maybe we have no control but it sounds more like the autonomic nervous system which regulates your heart and other internal organs automatically and without your conscious contrrol. (WIKI: Autonomic Nervous System)
The research from the Driving or Talking paper is a direct reaction from high noise levels to low noise levels while a visual distraction is presented. The extent to which there are any 'feedback loops' is not explored but, I suspect, likely will be.
We see from the paper the confirmation of why it happens for something we know already. We thought that was under our control (i.e. turn down the sound and now I can think) but the twist from the paper is the brain actively does this too without our control. The question of feedback is how much does our active need to reach over to the volume control modulate the degree to which the brain's automatic 'sound level attenuator' does it for you.
An immediate extension from the researchers is their work applies toward talking on a cellphone but it would be necessary to review the results in more detail to see the exact effect of different sound levels since we know intuitively high sound is highly-disturbing but a cellphone isn't exactly high sound. Be careful on using this as blanket indictment of cellphones as nothing is ever so simple.
Note: understand the pose as I understand a lot or a little from any given article from Science Daily. Aspiring to be a Renaissance Man is all very well in those old times when the Earth was flat, medicine was hitting someone with a rock, and you only had to compose a symphony once in a while. Trying to be a Renaissance Man now is patent absurdity except insofar as we can try to reach at least the panorama of what's happening even when we may not be able to paint the parts ourselves.
This, therefore, is part of the panorama and the 'interested student' is invited to pursue as you wish and as you're able.
You already know the effect is real and I'm sure women do the same thing so here's the actual science behind it. (Science Daily: Driving or talking? The brain concentrates on one thing at a time)
Their research shows there's active change in your brain in such a circumstance. Not only is your subjective experience that 'I cannot think with that noise,' the brain is actively reducing your ability to perceive the sound so it can fully devote attention to the immediate circumstance.
That may seem as if maybe we have no control but it sounds more like the autonomic nervous system which regulates your heart and other internal organs automatically and without your conscious contrrol. (WIKI: Autonomic Nervous System)
The research from the Driving or Talking paper is a direct reaction from high noise levels to low noise levels while a visual distraction is presented. The extent to which there are any 'feedback loops' is not explored but, I suspect, likely will be.
We see from the paper the confirmation of why it happens for something we know already. We thought that was under our control (i.e. turn down the sound and now I can think) but the twist from the paper is the brain actively does this too without our control. The question of feedback is how much does our active need to reach over to the volume control modulate the degree to which the brain's automatic 'sound level attenuator' does it for you.
An immediate extension from the researchers is their work applies toward talking on a cellphone but it would be necessary to review the results in more detail to see the exact effect of different sound levels since we know intuitively high sound is highly-disturbing but a cellphone isn't exactly high sound. Be careful on using this as blanket indictment of cellphones as nothing is ever so simple.
Note: understand the pose as I understand a lot or a little from any given article from Science Daily. Aspiring to be a Renaissance Man is all very well in those old times when the Earth was flat, medicine was hitting someone with a rock, and you only had to compose a symphony once in a while. Trying to be a Renaissance Man now is patent absurdity except insofar as we can try to reach at least the panorama of what's happening even when we may not be able to paint the parts ourselves.
This, therefore, is part of the panorama and the 'interested student' is invited to pursue as you wish and as you're able.
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