action-oriented listeners: Those who prefer to receive brief, to-the-point, accurate information for decision making—for example, a supervisor who requires brief summaries from department heads and does not want to bat around details in long meetings.

aggressive listening: Listening in order to attack or collect information to use against the speaker, such as when a father encourages his son to describe his ambitions just to ridicule the son’s goals. (Also known as ambushing.)

attending: The second stage of the listening process in which a listener devotes attention to received information. For example, you may hear a radio but attend only when a favorite song comes on.

back-channel cues: Nonverbal or verbal responses that signal you’ve paid attention to and understood specific comments—for example, saying, “Okay, got it” after someone details extensive driving directions.

content-oriented listeners: Those who prefer to be intellectually challenged by messages—they prefer complex, detailed information. For example, a supervisor reviews the success of a fund-raising event by requesting data analyzing the effectiveness of her team’s publicity campaign instead of asking to hear about team members’ experiences.

eavesdropping: Intentionally listening in on private conversations.

feedback: The behaviors that a listener uses to communicate attention and understanding while others are talking.

hearing: The sensory process of taking in and interpreting sound.

listening: The five-stage process of receiving, attending to, understanding, responding to, and recalling sounds and visual images during interpersonal encounters.

listening functions: The five general purposes that listening serves: to comprehend, to discern, to analyze, to appreciate, and to support.

listening style: An individual’s habitual pattern of listening behaviors, which reflects one’s attitudes, beliefs, and predispositions regarding the listening process. See also action-oriented listeners; content-oriented listeners; people-oriented listeners; time-oriented listeners.

long-term memory: The part of your mind devoted to permanent information storage.

mental bracketing: Systematically putting aside thoughts that aren’t relevant to the interaction at hand if your attention wanders when listening—for example, consciously dismissing your worries about an upcoming exam in order to focus on a customer’s request at work.

mnemonics: Devices that aid memory. For example, the mnemonic Roy G. Biv is commonly used to recall the order of the seven colors in the rainbow.

narcissistic listening: A self-absorbed approach to listening in which the listener redirects the conversation to his or her own interests. For example, Neil acts bored while Jack describes a recent ski trip, interrupting Jack and switching the topic to his own recent car purchase.

paraphrasing: An active listening response involving summarizing or restating others’ comments after they are finished speaking.

people-oriented listeners: Those who view listening as an opportunity to establish commonalities between themselves and others. For example, Carl enjoys Elaine’s descriptions of the triumphs and difficulties she’s had learning to snowboard.

provocateurs: Aggressive listeners who intentionally bait and attack others in online communication. For example, Timothy posts a meme about gun control on the Facebook page of a relative who belongs to the NRA solely for the purpose of starting an argument about the topic with the relative.

pseudo-listening: Pretending to listen while preoccupied or bored.

recalling: The fifth stage of the listening process in which a listener is able to remember information received.

receiving: The first stage of the listening process in which a listener takes in information by seeing and hearing.

responding: The fourth stage of the listening process in which a listener communicates, nonverbally or verbally, their attention and understanding—for example, by nodding or murmuring agreement.

selective listening: Listening that captures only parts of a message (those that are the most interesting to the listener) and dismisses the rest.

short-term memory: The part of your mind that temporarily houses information while you seek to understand its meaning.

time-oriented listeners: Those who prefer brief, concise messages to save time.

understanding: The third stage of the listening process in which a listener interprets the meaning of another person’s communication by comparing newly received information against past knowledge.