Hearing

(noun)

The physiological process of registering sound waves as they hit the eardrum.

Related Terms

Examples of Hearing in the following topics:

  • The Receiving Stage

    • The first stage of the listening process is the receiving stage, which involves hearing and attending.
    • The first stage of the listening process is the receiving stage, which involves hearing and attending.
    • Hearing is the physiological process of registering sound waves as they hit the eardrum.
    • Paired with hearing, attending is the other half of the receiving stage in the listening process.
    • The sounds we hear have no meaning until we give them their meaning in context.

  • The Understanding Stage

    • This is the stage during which the listener determines the context and meanings of the words he or she hears.
    • Once the listeners understands the speaker's main point, they can begin to sort out the rest of the information they are hearing and decide where it belongs in their mental outline.
    • You may immediately understand the words and sentences that you are hearing, but not immediately understand what the lecturer is proving or whether what you're hearing in the moment is a main point, side note, or digression.
    • Understanding what we hear is a huge part of our everyday lives, particularly in terms of gathering basic information.
    • But without understanding what we hear, none of this everyday listening would relay any practical information to us.

  • The Responding Stage

    • The responding stage is when the listener provides verbal and/or nonverbal reactions to what she hears.
    • Following the remembering stage, a listener can respond to what she hears either verbally or non-verbally.
    • When a listener responds verbally to what she hears and remembers—for example, with a question or a comment—the speaker/listener roles are reversed, at least momentarily.
    • There are many ways, both verbal and nonverbal, to respond to what you hear.

  • The Importance of Listening

    • Listening is an active process by which we make sense of, assess, and respond to what we hear.
    • Regardless of how we're engaged with listening, it's important to understand that listening involves more than just hearing the words that are directed at us.
    • Listening is an active process by which we make sense of, assess, and respond to what we hear.
    • Basically, an effective listener must hear and identify the speech sounds directed toward them, understand the message of those sounds, critically evaluate or assess that message, remember what's been said, and respond (either verbally or nonverbally) to information they've received.
    • Active listening is a particular communication technique that requires the listener to provide feedback on what he or she hears to the speaker, by way of restating or paraphrasing what they have heard in their own words.

  • The Remembering Stage

    • We depend on our memory to fill in the blanks when we're listening and to let us place what we're hearing at the moment in the context of what we've heard before.
    • Similarly, making associations to past remembered information can help a listener understand what she is currently hearing in a wider context.

  • Listening and Critical Thinking

    • Critical thinking skills are essential and connected to the ability to listen effectively and process the information that one hears.
    • People can use critical thinking skills to understand, interpret, and assess what they hear in order to formulate appropriate reactions or responses.
    • These skills allow people to organize the information that they hear, understand its context or relevance, recognize unstated assumptions, make logical connections between ideas, determine the truth values, and draw conclusions.

  • Technology

    • Hearing aid technology can help those who are hard of hearing more easily engage in a conversation or listen to a lecture.
    • Amplified or not, at the beginning of the speech, the speaker should ask, "Can you hear me in the back?
    • This can actually cause a message overload for the audience as they try to divide their attention between what they hear and what they see.

  • Be an Open-Minded Listener: Suspend Judgment and Exercise Empathy

    • Someone who listens with an open mind is willing to be influenced by what he or she hears.
    • This can be difficult when listening to something one does not want to hear or something about which one has pre-conceived notions.
    • They do not jump to conclusions, but rather hear the speaker out entirely and make an effort to understand his or her lines of argument.

  • Utilizing Devices to Enhance Audience Understanding

    • Amplification is important to make sure that the entire audience can hear the speech properly.
    • With the addition of visual aids, podiums, microphones, and video screens, a presenter can ensure that the audience is able to see, hear, and understand the material properly.

  • Rules to Follow When Listening

    • Active listening refers to the practice of not just hearing someone, but really listening and paying attention to what they have to say.
    • The art of active listening is more than just hearing what the speaker has to say: it's about being an engaged, attentive listener able to paraphrase what has already been said.