I am fascinated with the myriad ways that people's brains process different types of data at the same time. For any who wish to share, a query: 1. Are any of you musicians? I had a really weird moment at a Renaissance faire last spring - I was listening to a pipe & drum band play a lively tune along with a non-musician partner; after a handful of measures he turned to me and said, "is the snare in any way at all related to what the bagpipes are playing?" I was astounded; the snares were playing a rich counter-rythm and apparrently he couldn't hear the relationship *at all*; the quantity of the difference in cognition was suprising. I am curious to know if being / not being a musician affects the types of music that work or don't work with your multi-tasking in any predictable way. > From: Nytemuse [mailto:nytemuse at auros.org] > > I don't necessarily agree. My b/f had the hardest time understanding why > > I couldn't get any work done on the computer or doing homework or > > something without the TV on or music or chatting with someone. Are you actually processing the TV/music at the same time you're doing work? or is it white noise in this case? I also have a situation in which I need extra input of a different type - lecture. Processing a spoken monologue for any length of time over about 5 minutes will drive me up the wall and send me deep into my own thoughts in search of more stimulation and input, unless a) the person has a great enough density of information in their speech such that I'm devoting all of my effort to it, or b) I either draw stuff or play a minesweeper-type game. I just wish I'd figured this out in high school instead of my last year of college... doodling was always frowned upon because it meant you weren't "paying attention", so for awhile I kept telling myself I wasn't supposed to be doing it. If anyone else has extra-input needs, I'd be interested in hearing them. > > When I'm > > reading, I don't watch TV, though. I DO listen to music, > > preferably something that my brain perceives as "white noise" > > (something familiar and not too distracting), if not white > > noise itself. Do you listen to music with clear and obvious lyrics, or no? If you don't, that would seem to imply that verbalized language interferes somewhat with the part of your brain that's processing the book. That is certainly the case with me; I can follow a conversation or process lyrics and read at the same time, but my reading speed drops by about 75% when I do. > > If I don't, any background noise will distract > > me. I'm guessing that the TV ends up in the same category as "background noise"? > > I guess because I've trained my brain to multi-task? In the case of your computer work, that would seem to be the case if you are actually processing the TV/music. Query, does chatting include in-person, online, phone, or some combination thereof? In the case of you reading... it would seem as if your multi-tasking isn't working the way you want it to if the background noises can actually distract you from your reading. > From: Matthew Hunter [mailto:matthew at infodancer.org] > > Sometimes it helps, sometimes it hurts. It depends on how the > > music complements the text, and how intrusive the music is. I > > listen to very text-friendly music -- carefully chosen to occupy > > a different part of my mental space than reading a book or > > programming or writing does. Do you (does anyone else who's reading this) ever select music specifically for a particular book? As a possible example, coupling the score from The Crow with Agyar, or Willow with one of the more rollicking Vlad books. Is there anyone out there who can actually listen to song lyrics (even better, actually sing along with them) and still read at their full speed? At 09:57 PM 11/25/2002 -0800, David Silberstein wrote: >To the left, I do sometimes listen to music while reading, and I find >that sometimes what I'm reading is so interesting that I start >ignoring the music, and sometimes the music is so compelling that I no >longer give the text my full attention. I think that even if we're passively ignoring it, music still has the possibility of affecting us subconsciously... one time I put on a CD of 20th Century classical works, and was talking with some friends when I became consciously aware that I was feeling slightly depressed for no apparent reason... and then realized that we were in the middle of Barber's Adagio for Strings. About that time one of my friends looked up and said, "we need to change the music, this is making me sad." On Tue, Nov 26, 2002 at 10:37:24AM -0500, Rick Castello wrote: > Programming with music - Yes. > > Reading with music - No. > > A well-written work creates its own sort of background score > in my head... it doesn't need any other music to compete with, > if I'd even notice what was going on in the background. I do this sometimes as well. Is it a matter of the music actually jarring with what your mind is providing, or is it something else? > I'm known among my friends for not even hearing them speak > (unless they're in my range of vision or speaking loudly) when > I'm engrossed in a good book. Likewise, if something/someone > creates enough of a distraction to actually make me notice > it/them, I'm more likely to be mildly annoyed than pleased at > the disturbance.* I ended up with a set of mental filters since I am averse to being unaware of my environment in some cases. I can read at full speed right in the middle of a group conversation, and I won't consciously process any of it unless the filters catch something - someone says my name, for example; or says something upon which I have a strong opinion. The sensation of the filters catching something is a bit odd; it's almost like waking up to the sound of voices - you comprehend that the voices are there, and then in the next few seconds the sentences actually start making sense / being processed. Anon, Kat