Listening

Conceptualization and Measurement

The term listen is derived from two Anglo-Saxon words: hylstan (hearing) and hlosnian (wait in suspense). However, there is considerable debate about the exact meaning of the term. Different definitions emphasize either the covert cognitive aspect, or the overt behavioral dimension, associated with listening. Thus, some definitions focus on the cognitive auditory processes involved in sensing, storing, and interpreting oral messages. This perspective distinguishes hearing from listening. Hearing is perceived as a physical activity, whereas listening is a mental process. Just as most of us use our visual pathways to see but read with our brains, so we use our aural pathways to hear but listen with our brains. Similarly, although we do not have to learn how to see but have to learn to read, so too we do not need to learn how to hear but need to learn to listen. But cognitive understandings of aural information ignore nonverbal cues, which contribute significantly to the actual meaning of a message. For this reason, broader definitions conceptualize listening as an inclusive relational process in which the listener attempts to assimilate, understand, and retain both the verbal and nonverbal signals emitted by the speaker.

Listening begins when our senses register incoming stimuli. Our sensory register receives a large volume of data but holds this for a short time. Auditory data are held for up to 4 seconds, whereas visual data are held for just a few hundred milliseconds. For information to be retained, it has to be transferred to memory. Social data can be coded and stored in both episodic memory (remembering what people did) and semantic memory (remembering what they said). In working memory (WM), both the memory/storage and attentional/processing functions combine to create meaning. People with greater WM capacities are better listeners because they can assimilate and process information swiftly and respond more appropriately. Research has shown a link between capacity for short-term listening (STL) and listening success. Good short-term listeners give more effective oral presentations, ask more questions in interviews, are more likely to secure promotion, and are rated as being better managers. However, although the importance of short-term memory for listening has been demonstrated, the exact nature of any causal relationship among listening ability, overt listening behavior, and STL is unclear. It is evident that there is more to listening than simply recall and more to recall than just listening. Further research is needed to tease out the exact nature of these relationships.

...