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Brynne Nicholas
PSY 300: Biopsychology
Southern New Hampshire University
Dr. Lisa M. Lancaster
July 24, 2022
Module 4-2 Journal: Sensory Simulation
The sensory simulation I chose was the Test of Auditory Awareness. I found this
simulation very interesting. I felt that the more I tried to focus on what the women were saying
my attention kept being drawn to what the men were saying; however, I never noticed the man
saying, “I’m a gorilla.” I also could not really notice complete sentences from either the men or
the women. I simply remembered hearing specific words such as hey, red, blue, wrapping paper,
silver, fancy, scissors, excellent, and beautiful (A test of auditory awareness (listen with
headphones!), 2012)).
Researchers can use information from sensory systems research and simulations to solve
real life problems in areas like concentration, attention, observation, and perspective. Because of
the focus trying to be on the women’s voices, only thirty percent of individuals actually noticed
the man saying, “I'm a gorilla.” It is remarkably interesting to me how in our sensory auditory
process, just the act of trying to focus on one thing can cause us to not retain other things around
us regardless of how much you would think they should stand out. Recent studies on auditory
awareness using sound patterns have shown that if an individual's attention is shifted away from
something they are listening to, then they do not present the same pattern of accumulation as
they do prior to the attention shift. Participants failed to show buildup when their attention was
diverted from the intended task, and it did not reengage once the tasks had been redirected nor
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during the brief switch in attention (Snyder, Gregg, Weintraub, & Alain, 2012). This knowledge,
in my opinion, could help researchers better comprehend the mechanics underlying our attention
throughout the auditory awareness process and alter our focus so that we can remember more
valuable information at the time, especially when it comes to learning.
Information from the sensory systems could be applied to my Final Project in that when doing
my preliminary research on autism spectrum disorder, as I would come across various topics, I
would shift my focus on those instead of completing my original research. Once my focus
shifted, it was hard for me to go back to my original research. I would continue narrowing down
my search based on the sub-topics that I found most interesting or that I may have had some
knowledge of even if there was no gap in research or connections to be made. Our sensory
systems give us the ability to integrate and combine all information that we get through our
senses and allow us to make sense of what we are learning. And upon doing my research, there
were numerous times where I would shift my focus away from the overall topic, go down a
rabbit hole of smaller bits of information, and then eventually have to give up and start my
research over again after wasting much time on researching information that was of no use to my
investigation. My original topic and research question changed numerous times just within a few
days of beginning my research.
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References
A test of auditory awareness (listen with headphones!) (2012). Attentionlab. YouTube. Retrieved
July 18, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=zGKADgFCoeU&feature=youtu.be
Snyder, J. S., Gregg, M. K., Weintraub, D. M., & Alain, C. (2012). Attention, awareness, and the
perception of auditory scenes. Frontiers in psychology, 3(15). Retrieved from,
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00015
