Re: Informational Masking (Jont Allen )

Subject: Re: Informational Masking
From:    Jont Allen  <jba(at)RESEARCH.ATT.COM>
Date:    Thu, 1 Mar 2001 19:59:55 -0500

Peter Lennox wrote:

>  I've also noticed what a complex phenomenon this information-masking is,
> compared to signal-masking. If my wife speaks to me when I'm trying to fix
> this blessed computer, it can take me 15 minutes to respond! (if at all).

Yes, "MS windows" produces lots of "information masking"  ;-)

> I'm not just being facetious here; I seem to observe that it is possible to
> 'store' apparently (fairly) unprocessed 'sound chunks', and 're-listen' to
> them a short time later, and *only then* understand them.
> Obviously I'm mixing two (or more!) different phenomena here, but it's not
> the selective attention / selective inattention that I'm most interested in,
> in this case. It's this 'short-term buffer' that is interesting, as it may
> be the same thing that assist in 'understanding' complex auditory scenes,
> and speech, for that matter.
> Is there much work on this?
> regards
> Peter Lennox
> Hardwick House
> tel: (0114) 2661509
> e-mail: peter(at)lennox01.freeserve.co.uk
> or:- ppl100(at)york.ac.uk

sorry I could not resist.

  --jba (spam Inc.)