How We Listen

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Unless there is a physical reason hearing does not take place, it is an involuntary process—you can’t turn it on or off. But you can, to some degree, decide what sounds you’re going to notice. This is where listening comes in.

How many times have you had the radio on, only to realize you weren’t listening to it? You know you heard the music, and you may have sung along. But just moments after it ends, you can’t recall the name of the song or how the DJ introduced it. You were thinking about something else or not paying enough attention to retain what you heard.

Although the two are often confused, hearing and listening are not the same thing. Hearing is the physiological process of perceiving sound, the process through which sound waves are picked up by the ears and transmitted to the brain. Unless there is a physical reason hearing does not take place, it is an involuntary process—you can’t turn it on or off. But you can, to some degree, decide what sounds you’re going to notice. This is where listening comes in.

Listening is the process of recognizing, understanding, accurately interpreting, and responding effectively to the messages you hear. It is much more than just hearing words or being able to recall information (Janusik, 2005; Todd & Levine, 1996). Listening involves processing what others say and do, paying attention, understanding (Thomas & Levine, 1994), and creating messages that respond to the speaker and are directed toward achieving goals (Janusik, 2005; Wiemann, Takai, Ota, & Wiemann, 1997). In this section, we examine how this crucial process works.