I can usually make sense of my kitchen radio, even if someone else is talking or the phone is ringing. This isolation of a single noise among others is known as the “cocktail party effect”. However, just crumpling the bag inside a cereal packet renders any other sound unintelligible. Why?
• The term “cocktail party effect” was coined by British cognitive scientist Colin Cherry in 1953, although his research was actually prompted by the difficulty air traffic controllers had in keeping track of certain pilots when all their voices were broadcast over a single loudspeaker. Researchers wanted to know how people could tune into a single voice and what prompted their attention…
