How many yakking people does it take to drive you freaking nuts? Not two. Not three. Researchers say it only takes one--if they're talking to someone else you can’t hear. Cornell University scientists monitored how well 41 college students could perform concentration exercises (like tracking moving dots on a computer screen) in different listening environments. They compared their skills while working in silence to working while listening to a monologue, a conversation between two people, or a half conversation—called a “halfalogue.” In a paper to appear in Psychological Science, they say that this last case, listening to only one side of a conversation, was the most distracting. We all like to eavesdrop, so getting only part of the story can be especially frustrating. The Los Angeles Times reports:
"We believe this finding helps reveal how we understand language in conversation," the lead author of the study, Lauren Emberson, said in a news release. "We actively predict what the person is going to say next and this reduces the difficulty of language comprehension."
Scene: your favorite coffee shop. Enter the dude on his cell phone. Emberson and her team believes this half-convo confusion is part of what makes overheard cell phone chats so annoying. One ...