Receiving

While walking to class, you run into a friend and stop to chat with her. As she talks, you listen to her words as well as observe her behavior. But how does this process happen? As you observe your friend, light reflects off her skin, clothes, and hair and travels through the lens of your eye to your retina, which contains optic nerves. These nerves become stimulated, sending information to your brain, which translates the information into visual images such as your friend smiling or shaking her head, an effect called seeing. At the same time, sound waves generated by her voice enter your inner ear, causing your eardrum to vibrate. These vibrations travel along acoustic nerves to your brain, which interprets them as your friend’s words and voice tone, an effect known as hearing.

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In Insidious, Dalton’s mother listens intently to the strange whispers coming from her son’s baby monitor, causing an emotional response of fear but also prompting her to investigate. Whenever we hear sounds or listen to others, we go through a process to help us figure out what we heard and how to respond.

© FilmDistrict/Courtesy Everett Collection

Together, seeing and hearing constitute receiving, the first step in the listening process. Receiving is critical to listening—you can’t listen if you don’t “see” or hear the other person. Unfortunately, our ability to receive is often hampered by noise pollution, sound in the surrounding environment that obscures or distracts our attention from auditory input. Sources of noise pollution include crowds, road and air traffic, construction equipment, and music.

You can enhance your ability to receive—and improve your listening as a result—by becoming aware of noise pollution and adjusting your interactions accordingly. Practice monitoring the noise level in your environment during your interpersonal encounters, and notice how it impedes your listening. When possible, avoid interactions in loud and noisy environments, or move to quieter locations when you wish to exchange important information with others.

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Repeated exposure to intense levels of noise pollution can result in hearing impairment. Guitarist Pete Townshend of the Who, after years of exposure to his own noise pollution, can no longer hear spoken words during normal conversations.

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