Tuning out spouse's voice

I wonder where Charles Shultz got the idea for the adult voice in the animated version of peanuts.....
 
Treading on very dangerous grounds, here:
Couples can tune out spouse's voice | The London Free Press
No comment... for information only. ;)

Scientists knew we can pick out a familiar voice from a room of speakers, but researchers at Queen's University in Kingston have found we also can single out a familiar voice to exclude to better hear a stranger.

"People can exploit knowledge of a highly familiar voice (their spouse's) not only to track it better in the presence of an interfering stranger's voice, but also, crucially, to ignore it," researchers wrote in study published in Psychological Science.
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more...
 
Are you nuts? Who here (besides you) has a spouse with vices? Not me. Right, dear? :D
 
I previously posted a thread on this subject entitled "there goes the Honey Do list". In the interests of housekeeping perhaps the moderators might link to combine the threads. :)

30 minutes later....Wow, that was fast. Thanks guys!
 
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pb4uski said:
No news there - I have been doing this for decades - or so DW claims. :D
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Not married, but have long time GF. I was always getting busted for not paying attention to her. I found out if I look directly at her while she speaks, I don't have to pay attention. This way we can accomplish 2 things at the same time. She can finish her daily babbling requirements, and I can use that time to daydream.
 
I saw my uncle do it. As a little kid never understand how he didn't hear my aunt, after all she spoke the loudest.

Funniest thing was it was accepted, he can't hear. Every Friday and Saturday night he played sax and clarinet at the local country club, well into his 90s.

MRG
 
I remember similar research done some 20 years ago and discussed on "20/20" or a like TV show. Researchers played simultaneously two recordings of people talking. Men had a difficult time keeping track of exactly what was said in each of the two conversations while it was much easier for women. A possible explanation offered was evolution. Something like: in the "caveman days" men needed to stay focused on a single thing while hunting or you could get killed, while women back in the community multi-tasked conversations watching the children, talking with other women, while doing "chores." I'm simplifying the explanation horribly, but it was something along those lines.

This "explains" why a guy watching/hearing a football game on TV has difficulty knowing exactly what the wife is saying if he is more focused on the game, and why she can't understand how come he can't also pay attention to what she's saying ('cause she's able to, generally speaking).
 
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DW has accused me of selective hearing, hmm.
 
Provocative subject line. :cool:

After age 60, people lost some ability to focus on a stranger's voice but retained the ability to hear their spouse.
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This was a surprise to me, I might have guessed selective hearing skills continue to "improve" with age ad infinitim. I assumed by age 90 or before, DW and I won't hear anything the other says.

But don't tell (my) DW about this "research"...you'll blow my cover.
 
pb4uski said:
No news there - I have been doing this for decades - or so DW claims. :D
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One thing I do right. I listen to whatever woman I am with. I want to understand what she is up to. That is hard enough to do when you listen.

Ha
 
SO and I have a mutual understanding that we each have subjects of personal interest to ourselves only, that we just need to pontificate on while the other party is merely present. I'm very well aware when she's not really listening to me, and she knows when I'm doing the same. We have a chuckle about it sometimes, though she was a bit embarrassed when I first busted her. I was actually relieved, as I had previously worried that I was the only party who occasionally tuned out :LOL:
 
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Well, I have just experienced it....

I had told my DD and DW to get together so my DD could show which keys on our piano were not working... I just talked to DW and she said 'you never told me'.... we will see what DD says when she gets home from school....


One of my BIL once told one of my sisters that he only heard half of what she said..... her response.... 'you are not hearing the correct half'.....
 
This thread reminds me that football season is about to start :D
 
This is news? I've been doing it for uh, never mind.

And the audiologist killed my excuse when I had my hearing checked. It's just fine.
 
Major Tom said:
SO and I have a mutual understanding that we each have subjects of personal interest to ourselves only, that we just need to pontificate on while the other party is merely present. I'm very well aware when she's not really listening to me, and she knows when I'm doing the same. We have a chuckle about it sometimes, though she was a bit embarrassed when I first busted her. I was actually relieved, as I had previously worried that I was the only party who occasionally tuned out :LOL:
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+1
 
I am a rock star at tuning out Ms G. She spends more time talking to her animals, so I know when she asks a question of me, because she talks nicer to the dogs.
 
DH takes it to a whole new level when we are with others. He often repeats what I say (things he wouldn't know) but louder, and when I say "I just said that," he says, "you did?" Because he really didn't "hear" me. Hilarious as everyone else heard me.
 
I tend to tune out of things that don't interest me. This includes TV/radio programs as well as DW. I have asked her to address me before talking if she wants me to hear her.

(She talks to her plants and animals which I correctly ignore.)
 
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