 | erdos0 |
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Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:00:30 pm
I have difficulty reading, writing, and programming while listening to music or speech. This wasn't always a problem for me. When I was younger, I had to do homework and study for exams while my sister listened to the radio or watched television. I was able to handle that fine and I didn't even need to block out what I was hearing. I'm not sure when I lost the ability. It was some time in high school or college when I started being unable to focus if the television was on. Instrumental music was still fine back then, but even that is too distracting for me now.
I have been evaluating the problem to see what causes it and to search for a possible solution. The main problem is that I mentally vocalize words when I read and I can't hear myself think if my ears hear actual words or music. When I learned to read, I had more difficulty than most people in reading silently. I did soft vocalization to avoid being heard. That gradually transformed into doing non-vocalized speech movements with my mouth. I mastered silent reading by perfecting the ability to hear the vocalization in my mind.
What I hear also affects writing, because I proofread a lot. I also tend to stop in the middle of a sentence to think more about what I am writing and I have to reread to determine where to continue. Programming involves both reading and writing, but there is also a tremendous amount of logical thinking that goes far beyond what is needed in ordinary writing. I think through complex logic using mentally vocalized words. If the logic is exceptionally complex, I sometimes still need to do actual vocalization.
Instrumental music interferes through a slightly different mechanism. Hearing words messes up the words that are in my mind by mixing the imagined and heard words together into incoherent sentences and phrases. Hearing instrumental music doesn't do that, but it shifts my focus and uses up the resources in my auditory cortex. That leaves me mentally mute, unable to mentally speak the words that I am reading or thinking. Bad music isn't a problem, because I just block that out of my mind as I do with background noise.
Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:14:36 pm
I have the same problem. I can't recommend a solution.
Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:16:40 pm
That's interesting, erdos. What about in the case of being somewhere, say in an office, where there are a lot of conversations and background noise? Does listening to music through headphones help or does it make the situation worse? I guess I'm wondering if these parameters you've defined are more psychological or an actual physiological change in brain chemistry as you've gotten older.
Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:21:40 pm
re: comment#2
That's interesting, erdos. What about in the case of being somewhere, say in an office, where there are a lot of conversations and background noise? Does listening to music through headphones help or does it make the situation worse? I guess I'm wondering if these parameters you've defined are more psychological or an actual physiological change in brain chemistry as you've gotten older.
When there are many conversations simultaneously, I have difficulty in hearing just one of them without concentrating. The cacophony is unintelligible and does not contribute to the problem.Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:33:30 pm
Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:36:04 pm
I had the mouth feel thing when I was younger, but now it's only in my throat.
Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:47:55 pm
Most group activities do this to me.
Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:49:45 pm
I think that I lost it around the time I stopped playing clarinet.
I narrowly escaped speech therapy. I stuttered when I was young. I had no idea what was involved in therapy and very much wanted to avoid it. I forced myself to stop stuttering through extreme focus and will.
Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:50:07 pm
By sounds?
Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:57:15 pm
Thu Jul 23, 2009 11:09:56 pm
I had "speech lab" in college, but that was for Spanish.
My sister was forced to take English as a second language classes because she is Chinese. That was completely racist. She was born and raised in New York and has never had any speech impairment or difficulty in communication.
Thu Jul 23, 2009 11:26:41 pm
Most Chinese students were forced to take the ESL classes. I was able to avoid it by displaying linguistic abilities that were far above average. They put me in the smart class instead.
Thu Jul 23, 2009 11:55:48 pm
agrees with: comment#1
I have the same problem. I can't recommend a solution.
Thu Jul 23, 2009 11:58:05 pm
I did not realize that it was so common.
Fri Jul 24, 2009 12:16:15 am
This is possible.
Fri Jul 24, 2009 12:25:59 am
re: comment#13
I did not realize that it was so common.
i really need quiet in order to concentrate. People talking doesn't bother me too much; I can tune them out. I also tend to "hear" how words sound in my mind...like right now when I'm typing this out for example. :)Fri Jul 24, 2009 12:28:52 am
re: comment#15
i really need quiet in order to concentrate. People talking doesn't bother me too much; I can tune them out. I also tend to "hear" how words sound in my mind...like right now when I'm typing this out for example. :)
I mentally create the sound of words before I type them and again as I verify that the word is typed correctly.Fri Jul 24, 2009 1:07:32 am
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13449
A neckband that translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals has been used to demonstrate a "voiceless" phone call for the first time.
With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound. These signals are picked up by the neckband and relayed wirelessly to a computer that converts them into words spoken by a computerised voice.
Fri Jul 24, 2009 1:56:42 am
I find the only way I can focus on what is in front of me is if I cannot hear myself think; it is actually the only way I can "relax."
Thus my love for dive bars and my affinity toward falling asleep on public transportation.
I like to layer music into an awful racket.
Fri Jul 24, 2009 2:18:31 am
re: comment#18
I find the only way I can focus on what is in front of me is if I cannot hear myself think; it is actually the only way I can "relax."
Thus my love for dive bars and my affinity toward falling asleep on public transportation.
I like to layer music into an awful racket.
I sleep well on trains, but it's a different phenomenon. I grew up living next to a Department of Highways facility. They moved their large trucks and bulldozers around at night. I learned to associate loud noisy environments with sleep.Thus my love for dive bars and my affinity toward falling asleep on public transportation.
I like to layer music into an awful racket.
Fri Jul 24, 2009 4:00:03 pm
re: comment#16
I mentally create the sound of words before I type them and again as I verify that the word is typed correctly.
I don't do that. But I talk in my mind while I'm typing. I don't proof my stuff tho'. :)