Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!apple!bionet!hayes.fai.alaska.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: motcid!king@uunet.uu.net (Steven King) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Telecom Peeves Message-ID: <9789@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 16 Jul 90 16:53:23 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: Motorola Inc. - Cellular Infrastructure Div., Arlington Hgts, IL Lines: 33 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 489, Message 2 of 10 In article <9718@accuvax.nwu.edu> John Higdon writes: >roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) writes: >> Do double-hearing people >> find that noise in the non-phone ear is a real problem, or does the >> brain automatically just filter it out? >The brain filters it out. It is very amusing to watch people in a >noisy location jamming a finger in the opposite ear. That technique >does little good when the real problem is noise entering through the >mouthpiece. At one of my transmitter sites, there is a standard phone >that I have been too lazy to modify. When making calls in the noisy >room, covering my other ear has virtually no effect on >intelligibility, but cupping my hand over the mouthpiece makes all the >difference in the world. Speak for yourself. The mouthpiece on the phone at home picks up much less ambient noise than my other ear does. I can't vouch for machinery noise (droning fans and whatnot) but jamming a finger in my ear helps considerably in blocking background conversation. Actually, those of us with stereoscopic hearing (holy mixed metaphors, Batman!) can filter out a great deal of noise coming in the other ear, just like you sucessfully filter out the image of your nose that one eye sees when looking to the extreme right or left. It's only in extreme circumstances (like a raucous gaming run going on in the background) that I have to block the other ear. Steve King, Motorola Cellular (...uunet!motcid!king)