Cocktail Party Effect

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The cocktail party effect describes the ability to focus one's listening attention on a single talker among a mixture of conversations and background noises, ignoring other conversations. The effect enables people to talk in a noisy place. For example, when conversing in a noisy crowded party, people can still listen and understand the person they are talking with, and can simultaneously ignore background noise and conversations. Nevertheless, if someone calls out their name from across the room, people will immediately notice. Another aspect of the cocktail party effect is de-reverberation. In a normal room a listener perceives much less echo and reverberation than a microphone recording does.