Hearing and Understanding - A Meaning of Life

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Have you ever wondered how hearing works? Or how exactly listening is different from hearing?

Or what about how the brain can make sense out of sound?

This page offers a cursory introduction to these topics and explores ideas that are more on the fringes of listening, like the impact of music or disorders that impact our ability to enjoy or understand sound.

We approach this journey with our friend Billy, who will help us understand some of the concepts!

This page is for you if you’re looking for a more in-depth explanation of the relationship between hearing and understanding and are curious about the processes beneath the surface! This is an informational page without a focus on practical application, intended to assuage your curiosity for the why and how of technical listening processes.

What’s the difference between Hearing and Listening?

The International Listening Association defines listening as “the process of receiving, constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken and/or non-verbal messages.”

We would go a step further to include that not all listening is created equal, and the listening that counts involves a conscious choice to engage.

This gives us the opportunity to break down listening into its components beyond conscious engagement: the processes of hearing and understanding.

If listening is the conscious decision to pay attention and participate, hearing is the perception of information, and understanding is the process of constructing meaning.

We need to pick this apart. This may be TOTALLY obvious to you- and, it is still fascinating. Think about it for a second- we automatically hear and interpret information, just like any animal does. Yet, we have another special ability, and that is intentionally seeking and interpreting information.

Okay, well plenty of folks actually don’t consider that these are different processes. However the difference casts these options WORLDS apart and can have huge consequences for every aspect of your life!

Let’s illustrate this with an example:

The difference between hearing and listening can be further showcased through our friend Billy, who (like many of us) is blessed with both abilities. Billy doesn’t have to try to hear things, it seems to happen without his conscious effort, indicating that his ability to hear is a passive process. However, he does have to apply effort intentionally to listen, meaning the process is active.

For example, Billy can hear things while he’s asleep. The sense of hearing evolved by his ancestors serves as an alarm system to alert him to dangers lurking out of his line of sight. When Billy sleeps, his brain is able to filter out unimportant noises and continue to monitor for things out of the norm that could be a threat: like a window breaking or his dog Frank peeing on the carpet in the middle of the night. The sounds that capture Billy’s attention in this way are capitalizing on his exogenous attention, or in other words, the sounds are stimuli that Billy reacts to.

On the other hand, let’s say Frank gets out while Billy is taking a nap in his hammock one afternoon. He hears a bark that wakes him up from his slumber. Because of processes occurring in his brain, Billy not only identifies that it is a bark, but that it is Frank’s bark, it is further away than it should be, and Frank is agitated. He leaps out of the hammock and begins the search for Frank. Wandering around the neighborhood, all of Billy’s senses are on high alert- he is actively listening for any sound or sign of his four-legged companion. He is applying his attention to what he hears with an agenda, also known as executive attention. Billy is listening.

To allay your concerns, Billy found Frank and all was well (despite a few overturned trash cans). But what’s really interesting here is how complicated the processes of hearing, listening, and understanding actually are when we experience them as automatic. It’s easy to take for granted how quickly we can hear, recognize, and interpret meaning from sound.

It’s possible that if Billy were to be involved in an accident (heaven forbid) that left him with brain damage, he might be able to hear sound but not construct meaning from it due to damage to the nerves responsible for that process. When this impacts someone’s understanding of speech, this is known as Wernicke’s Aphasia.

What Is Wernicke’s Aphasia
This video from the National Aphasia Association explains how Wernicke’s Aphasia impacts an individual.

How the Ear Works

This is how Billy’s ear works (FYI, your ear is probably just like Billy’s):

Sound enters the outer ear in the form of sound waves.
It travels down the ear canals and vibrates the eardrum, which causes a set of three bones to start moving.
These bones create movement in the cochlea, which sends waves through the fluid inside.
The waves in the fluid impact tiny, fragile hair cells. Depending on how these hair cells are affected, they send corresponding electrical signals to the brain.

Then Billy’s brain takes over. Depending on what the sound is, it may need to be interpreted by different parts of the brain to extract it’s full meaning. Speech and language get special attention that is slightly different from explosions, barks, running water or music.

Journey of Sound to the Brain
This video from The National Institutes of Health offers an easy-to-follow visual construction of how hearing works.

Have you ever wondered if we are using our senses to their fullest potential? Perhaps you’ve heard that losing one sense enhances the others? For example, while it may seem that those who’ve lost their sight have better hearing than the rest of us, it isn’t true that their hearing improves.

Our ability to hear is pretty fixed from birth unless damage occurs and reduces our sensitivity to sound (which is irreversible). The little hairs on the hair cells inside our ears are so incredibly fragile that damage is easily done- and they do not grow back! So if a person goes blind at some point throughout the course of their life and seems to have enhanced hearing, it isn’t that their physical ability has improved, but that their listening ability has improved.

When one sense no longer occupies the majority of our attention (sight is the primary sense we rely on) we can divert our attention with more focused application to other information, such as sound. When we tune our listening skills, we can discover an entirely new world of information.

Take Daniel Kish for example. Completely blind, Daniel taught himself to master listening to his environment to the extent that he has developed the skill of echolocation! It is truly amazing how much information he can gather from his environment simply by paying attention to the movement of sound waves. Check it out, you won’t be disappointed:Blind Man Uses Echolocation | Extraordinary Animals | BBC Earth

What Can We Understand?

All animals communicate, but none have mastered the level of complexity in communication achieved by mankind (as far as we currently know). The sophistication of our language enabled our cooperation and thus our survival and thriving as a species. When it comes to understanding language our brain first learns discriminative listening and later comprehensive listening.

Discriminative listening has been shown to start in the womb and is the ability to distinguish between different types of sounds and assign them meaning. Think of listening to someone speak a language you don’t understand. You are likely able to pick up that they are frightened or frustrated depending on how they communicate even though you don’t know the words they are using. Billy used discriminative listening to determine that Frank got out.

Comprehensive listening is used to interpret meaning from words– it would be to understand the words used in the language, outside of how they were said. Comprehensive listening takes longer to learn than discriminative (but isn’t necessary for understanding your dog).

Let’s explore how Billy’s brain processes sound by using his communication with his girlfriend Eileen as an example. When Eileen talks to Billy, his brain is able to pick up on a variety of patterns that relay the meaning of her message. All of them except “words” are discriminatory in how they extract meaning.

Type of Information	Definition	Example	Variations of Meaning
Tone	“a particular quality, way of sounding, modulation, or intonation of the voice as expressive of some meaning, feeling, spirit, etc.: a tone of command. An accent peculiar to a person, people, locality, etc., or a characteristic mode of sounding words in speech. Stress of voice on a syllable of a word.” dictionary.com	Something said seriously, playfully, hopefully, dryly, with exasperation, with enthusiasm, etc.	“Please take out the trash” said with seriousness could mean that the person speaking wants to convey the importance of the request. If said playfully, however, they could be communicating that it isn’t a big deal.
Pitch	“(In music, speech, etc.) the degree of height or depth of a tone or of sound, depending upon the relative rapidity of the vibrations by which it is produced.” dictionary.com	Could be high, low, or in between.	“Please” said in a high-pitched tone could be interpreted as whiney. “Please” said in a low pitch could communicate Eileen’s exasperation.
Volume	“The degree of sound intensity or audibility; loudness” dictionary.com	Shouting, whispering, speaking at a normal volume.	Eileen shouting “Hey!” could be trying to get Billy’s attention. However Eileen whispering “Hey” may be gently checking on him.
Prosody	“The stress and intonation patterns of an utterance.” dictionary.com	Includes rhythm, pauses, and words emphasized.	“I am so excited,” said in monotone may be interpreted as sarcastic, while “I am SO excited,” said with emphasis helps to re-affirm the meaning of the words used.
Words	“a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier of meaning.” dictionary.com	Different words can convey different nuances of meaning.	“I am sad” versus “I am despairing” convey different severity of the same emotion.

How Speech is More Than The Words We Speak | Andrew Rosenberg | TEDxCUNY
In this video, Andrew Rosenberg, a professor of computer science, breaks down the science of how we understand speech and how this information impacts our work with computers.

Obviously, there is more to effective listening than hearing and interpreting sound.

Eileen also uses body language and patterns of behavior to communicate things to Billy either directly or indirectly. Communication is not reserved solely to auditory exchange, but expands into the realms of visual and intuitive information gathering.

No wonder we need to consciously choose to listen in order to maximize our understanding- there is SO much information to process!

Our ability to pick up on emotions and relate to another person’s experience is known as empathizing. Empathizing is essential to effective listening, and is theorized to be demonstrated in the brain with mirror neurons.

When we perform an action, a series of motor neurons fire in our brain that relate to the action, like Billy throwing a ball for Frank. While that may not be an edgy fact, what is edgy is that a subset of these same neurons fire in someone else’s brain when they watch Billy throw the ball, even though they aren’t doing it themselves. We are essentially rehearsing what the other person is experiencing within our minds.

It isn’t a huge jump in reason to apply this effect with motor events to emotional events. Although debated heavily16,17, many scientists argue that mirror neurons are the basis for our ability to empathize, enabling us to imagine what another person is feeling and experiencing not only physically, but emotionally.

Regardless of whether or not mirror neurons are the basis of empathy, being sensitive to emotional information is essential to understanding what someone is expressing when they communicate with us. If Billy couldn’t pick up on Eileen’s frustration that he canceled their plans, he might not see the break-up coming.

There are Limitations to Listening in the Brain!

Regardless of all the varieties of information our brain can process, there are some processes and limitations that affect what we understand from what we hear or listen to.

For example, the human brain is capable of understanding far more words per minute than the average person talks. This is called the Listening Gap, or Speech Thought Differential. While we are able to understand up to 400 words per minute, the average speaker speaks at a rate of 125 words per minute¹. So what’s going on with all that extra capacity we have for processing information when only 30% of it is being used? We probably use that extra computing power to get distracted by daydreams, thinking of what to say next, or plotting out our vacation next month. No wonder it’s so hard to listen! We have to command a wide berth of attention into a narrow margin of focus.

“The use, or misuse, of this spare thinking time holds the answer to how well a person can concentrate on the spoken word.” – Ralph Nichols for HBR 1957

Now Hear This, Quickly
This article from the New York Times talks about the process of digitally speeding up audio for faster comprehension and the possibility of squeezing more information into smaller segments of time.

For this reason, leading listening researcher Ralph Nichols asserts in his book, “Are You Listening?” that first graders are the best listeners as a way to impress a point. He and his colleagues conducted an experiment in which teachers would randomly stop class and ask the students what they were thinking about or what the teacher had said. First graders demonstrated that they were paying attention 90% of the time by answering correctly, and this rate continually dropped into older grades. Nichols theorized that because our capacity for comprehending more speech expands as our brain develops, it becomes harder to pay attention and listen efficiently as we get older.

Furthermore, his studies indicated that we don’t retain much of what we hear. Eight hours after listening to a lecture, students retained only a third to a half of what they heard, and after two months that reduces to only a quarter!²

ASMR and Misophonia

Fascinating Phenomena We Don’t Fully Understand

Outside of hearing and understanding in the wild world of communication, we also hear and intentionally listen to other things that can have a profound impact on us.

For starters, we can be emotionally and physically triggered by certain sounds. While science is yet to uncover explicitly how or why this works, the phenomena of ASMR and Misophonia demonstrate how various sounds can produce physical and emotional sensations.

ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response and is experienced as a tingling sensation on the scalp, neck, and upper back. People who have an ASMR response report that it feels relaxing and even euphoric, which has led to an explosion of ASMR videos on the internet featuring people brushing hair, whispering, eating, or touching things.

So Satisfying ASMR video compilation
Check out this compilation for some examples of ASMR stimulating sounds.

On the other end of the spectrum, some people suffer from Misophonia, a disorder defined by the hatred of sound in which specific sounds bring about an aversive response that can agitate and even enrage the sensitive individual. Common noises for misophones include eating, breathing, or lip-smacking.

Listening to Music Can be Good for You!

Considering how strongly we can react to simple sets of noises, it is no wonder that music has significant effects on us. The neuroscience of music is a massive topic with a long history of research in dozens of directions regarding how music impacts the brain and our overall well-being, but we’ll just touch on a few.

Listening to music has been shown to reduce stress and helps us relax.
- Calming or positive music can reduce cortisol (the stress hormone) and boost immune system responses.³
Listening to music can be used to reduce the perception of pain.^3,4
Listening to music promotes creativity, especially upbeat music.^5,6
Professional musician’s brains show increased cognitive flexibility and better working memory than non-musicians.⁷
- Think of them as sommeliers for music; like a wine specialist comes to know the nearly imperceptible differences in taste and texture of wines, a professional musician is attuned to the nearly imperceptible differences in sound, which is reflected in the related structures of the brain.
Listening to up-tempo music can improve athletic endurance by distracting us from our fatigue and increasing endorphin output, and similarly, it can help us stay motivated while exercising.^8,⁹
Listening to and learning to play music can help kids learn more effectively by expanding their language development, spatial intelligence, and increase brain connectivity. ¹⁰
Listening to music can help strengthen working memory in older adults.^11,¹²
Music Therapy can reduce the symptoms of depression, anxiety, and insomnia.^13,¹⁴
Music taste is related to personality (but not necessarily a predictor of it).¹⁵ Check out this article from Verywellmind for the breakdown.

Professional musician’s brains show increased cognitive flexibility and better working memory than non-musicians.⁷
- Think of them as sommeliers for music; like a wine specialist comes to know the nearly imperceptible differences in taste and texture of wines, a professional musician is attuned to the nearly imperceptible differences in sound, which is reflected in the related structures of the brain.
Listening to up-tempo music can improve athletic endurance by distracting us from our fatigue and increasing endorphin output, and similarly, it can help us stay motivated while exercising.^8,⁹
Listening to and learning to play music can help kids learn more effectively by expanding their language development, spatial intelligence, and increase brain connectivity. ¹⁰
Listening to music can help strengthen working memory in older adults.^11,¹²
Music Therapy can reduce the symptoms of depression, anxiety, and insomnia.^13,¹⁴
Music taste is related to personality (but not necessarily a predictor of it).¹⁵ Check out this article from Verywellmind for the breakdown.

Music Genre and Personality

From Visually.

Check out these fascinating articles for more details on the experiments that led to these conclusions:

Music as Medicine from the American Psychological Association
Music and health from Harvard Health
How Music Affects the Brain by BeBrainFit.com
The Surprising Science Behind What Music Does To Our Brains from Fast & Company

Checkout: All Listening Practice and Exercises

Checkout: Listening Resources

Citations

Orr, D. B., Friedman, H. L., & Williams, J. C. C. (1965). Trainability of listening comprehension of speeded discourse. Journal of Educational Psychology, 56(3), 148–156. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0021987
E. J. J. Kramar and Thomas B. Lewis, “Comparison of Visual and Nonvisual Listening,” Journal of Communication, November 1951, p. 16; and Arthur W. Heilman, “An Investigation in Measuring and Improving Listening Ability of College Freshmen,” Speech Monographs, November 1951, p. 308.
Chanda ML, Levitin DJ. The neurochemistry of music. Trends Cogn Sci. 2013;17(4):179-193. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2013.02.007
Trappe H. J. (2009). Musik und Gesundheit. Welche Musik hilft welchem Patienten–welche eher nicht? [Music and health–what kind of music is helpful for whom? What music not?]. Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift (1946), 134(51-52), 2601–2606. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0029-1243066
Mehta, R., Zhu, R., & Cheema, A. (2012). Is Noise Always Bad? Exploring the Effects of Ambient Noise on Creative Cognition. Journal of Consumer Research, 39(4), 784-799. doi:10.1086/665048
Ritter SM, Ferguson S (2017) Happy creativity: Listening to happy music facilitates divergent thinking. PLoS ONE 12(9): e0182210. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0182210
Pallesen, K. J., Brattico, E., Bailey, C. J., Korvenoja, A., Koivisto, J., Gjedde, A., & Carlson, S. (2010). Cognitive control in auditory working memory is enhanced in musicians. PloS one, 5(6), e11120. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0011120
Jymmin: How a combination of exercise and music helps us feel less pain
Karageorghis CI, Mouzourides DA, Priest DL, Sasso TA, Morrish DJ, Walley CJ. Psychophysical and ergogenic effects of synchronous music during treadmill walking. J Sport Exerc Psychol. 2009;31(1):18-36. doi:10.1123/jsep.31.1.18
The Benefits of Music Education | PBS for Parents
Mammarella, N., Fairfield, B., & Cornoldi, C. (2007). Does music enhance cognitive performance in healthy older adults? The Vivaldi effect. Aging clinical and experimental research, 19(5), 394–399. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03324720
Lehmberg, L.J., & Fung, C. (2010). Benefits of Music Participation for Senior Citizens: A Review of the Literature. http://cmer.arts.usf.edu/content/articlefiles/3122-MERI04pp.19-30.pdf
Nilsson U. The anxiety- and pain-reducing effects of music interventions: a systematic review. AORN J. 2008;87(4):780-807. doi:10.1016/j.aorn.2007.09.013
Jespersen, K. V., Koenig, J., Jennum, P., & Vuust, P. (2015). Music for insomnia in adults. The Cochrane database of systematic reviews, (8), CD010459. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD010459.pub2
North, A. (2010) Individual Differences in Musical Taste. The American Journal of Psychology. (123, No. 2) 199-208. DOI: 10.5406/amerjpsyc.123.2.0199
Baird AD, Scheffer IE, Wilson SJ. Mirror neuron system involvement in empathy: a critical look at the evidence. Soc Neurosci. 2011;6(4):327-35. doi: 10.1080/17470919.2010.547085. PMID: 21229470.
Marsh, Jason. (2012). “Do Mirror Neurons Give Us Empathy?” Greater Good Berkeley. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/do_mirror_neurons_give_empathy