Overheard one-sided phone conversations are more annoying
May 22nd, 2010 - 1:06 pm ICT by ANIWashington, May 22 (ANI): Researchers say that your annoyance at having to listen to a one-sided phone conversation is normal behaviour.
Researchers at Cornell University including Lauren Emberson, doctoral candidate in psychology at Cornell University, and Michael Goldstein, assistant professor of psychology at Cornell say that we are distracted from overhearing half of a conversation-a halfalogue-but not overhearing both sides of a conversation.
Emberson and her co-authors conclude that we are unable to tune out cell-phone conversations, which likely leads to our irritation.
“Hearing half a conversation is distracting because we are unable to predict the succession of speech,” Emberson said. “We believe this finding helps reveal how we understand language in conversation: We actively predict what the person is going to say next and this reduces the difficulty of language comprehension.
“People are often more irritated by nearby cell phone conversations rather than conversations between two people who are physically present. Since halfalogues really are more distracting and you can’t tune them out, this could explain why people are irritated.”
The study, “Overheard Cell-Phone Conversations: When Speech is More Distracting,” appears in the peer-reviewed journal, Psychological Science. (ANI)
- Why are mobile phone conversations so distracting? - Sep 22, 2010
- Even passengers' phone calls are a danger to drivers - Oct 13, 2010
- Overhearing mobile conversations 'more annoying than regular chit-chats' - Sep 14, 2010
- Drivers can be distracted by phone calls - Oct 17, 2010
- Cellphone holding shows your dominant side of brain - Feb 22, 2012
- Anticipating SMSes, calls too contribute to car crashes - Apr 30, 2012
- Texting kills 5,000 people every year in the US - May 20, 2012
- Why we don't see what's right in front of our eyes - Apr 18, 2011
- Software turns spoken English into 26 languages - Mar 15, 2012
- Man held after policeman overhears him describing murder - Mar 16, 2011
- Couples' way of talking can predict relationship success - Jan 26, 2011
- Talking on cell phones while crossing the street risky for older people - Mar 16, 2011
- Well-matched couples mimic each other's language - Oct 05, 2010
- 'Promiscuous parasites' can make you reckless - Sep 22, 2011
- Ringtones distract you from remembering, study reveals - Feb 15, 2012
Tags: annoyance, assistant professor, cell phone conversations, cornell university, doctoral candidate, emberson, language comprehension, michael goldstein, peer reviewed journal, phone conversation, psychological science, psychology, succession