Re: Annoyance of cell phone use in public spaces

["O.T.Furnes" <oddtf@xxxxxxxxxx>]

OMard, Lowel P  wrote: 
> 
> There is another reason why overhearing people using mobile phones are more annoying than hearing face to face conversations, that nobody seems to have mentioned.  When overhearing a mobile phone conversation we can only hear one side, whereas eavesdropping on a face to face conversation generally gives us access to both.  Being naturally nosey creatures it is of course frustrating to only hear half the conversation.
> 
> 
> ...Lowel.
> 
> 

7. august Michael Norris wrote:
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Guesses:
(1:psychoacoustic) if there is only one voice alternating with
silence you have to keep readapting and reorienting to the voice,
- as with a noise alternating with silence it sounds louder
and you are more aware of its position relative to yourself.
(2:learned) with a 2-sided conversation we are used to the
pattern of intonation and expect an alternation of voices, so
hearing one side is unusual, therefore grabs more attention
(3:social) speech nearby after silence often signals that
someone is trying to open a conversation with you, so you have
to keep actively ignoring the social cue.
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-Odd Torleiv Furnes

______________________
Odd Torleiv Furnes
Ph.D.student
Department of Musicology
University of Oslo
Norway
phone: +4762521667
mail: oddtf@imt.uio.no