2 9. Effective Hearing

• Hearing as a conscious perception of messages
• Sources of listening errors

Listening is a conscious perception of all messages emanating from another person, suggesting openness to his entire communicative behavior.

“To listen” and “to hear” is not the same thing. Most people are born capable of listening. This is a natural physiological process that does not require conscious effort from a person.

Hearing is a process during which we strive to understand and remember what we heard.

The problem of listening lies in the field of interpersonal communication, since it is not so much connected with selectivity, as with distortion or even omission of messages intended by communicators to each other.

The “life” of a message includes at least four stages:

• the message that the sender intends to make (his thoughts)
• the message as it is expressed (its real coding by the speaker)
• how it is interpreted (decoded by the listener)
• how it was finally preserved in the listener's memory.

According to some information, up to 1/3 of the time of our wakefulness, i.e. 5 hours a day, even more, we listen to teachers, colleagues, friends, family members, other passers-by.

It is difficult to listen carefully and for physiological reasons: we think faster than we speak. It is known that an ordinary person is able to perceive up to 500 words per minute, while the average speed of oral speech is from 125 to 150 words per minute. As a result, “free time” is formed, so to speak, which the listener fills with reflection on his problems, dreams, plans, or begins to interrupt and drive the speaker.

I. Hoffman identified three types of “preoccupation” of the listener, impeding his participation in the communicative process (see: Egan J. Hearing: an indispensable condition for supportive behavior // Interpersonal Communication: Chrestomatia. St. Petersburg. 2001).

First, external distraction.

Secondly, selfishness.

Third, preoccupation with interaction.

A special category of causes is related to the speaker's behavior and the nature of the message being transmitted.

Studying the communication process, D.T. Campbell identified some sources of systematic errors, the understanding of which can benefit both the speaker and the listener.

The length of the speaker's messages .

The middle of the message is remembered the least.

Completion of the message. The listener is inclined to “round out” what he heard, dividing the content into clearly delineated fragments, reducing the logical connectives both by enlarging some elements and excluding others.

The recommendations of specialists aimed at improving the efficiency of listening draw attention to the improvement of attention concentration, emotional self-control, and feedback.

• What are the stages of the “message life”?
• What kinds of “preoccupation” does the listener make it difficult for him to participate in the communication process?