Inattentional Deafness
Inattentional blindness is a well-known phenomenon in cognitive psychology: Something quite obvious is overlooked because one is concentrating on something else. The aim of this study was to demonstrate this effect in the auditory field, using the Sonata for Violin and Piano by W. A. Mozart (KV 296) as an example: The sonata was recorded in such a way that the violin stopped in the middle of the piece and a flute took over its part. At the same time, "mistakes" were brought into the piano part, i.e. obviously inappropriate notes such as syncopations or discordant harmonies. If the listeners (people without a musical background) were now given the task of counting these errors in the piano part, 87% of them missed the change from the violin to the flute - a change that only about 40% of the listeners missed when listening to the sonata normally (i.e. without focusing on the piano). The same experiment was also carried out with music students, and of them all noticed the change, even when they concentrated on the piano. On the one hand, this study shows that inattention effects exist in the auditory domain analogous to the visual domain, and on the other hand that these effects are strongly dependent on the professional expertise of the listeners.
Project title
Inattentional Deafness and Expertise
Project duration
May 2013 – Sept 2014
