Why does hearing yourself speak with a few seconds of delay, completely crash your brain?
In: Biology
For those wishing to see this phenomenon in action: the below video is English rugby player James Haskell malfunctioning on live TV when his headphones have a delay.
(https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k4iqk54leyE)
I’ve always wanted to weaponize this. Know that annoying guy on the corner talking about jeebus and how everyone is going to hell or whatever? Blast that back at him with a half second delay.
Some interesting answers here but I think the answer is very simply this: you’re not expecting it.
99% of your life when you speak you don’t hear your words repeated back to you. When you do it’s always a fantastically strange surprise, so it’s all your brain can focus on. Not to mention, it’s like having someone interrupt you and talk over you for the entire time you’re talking. Again, 99% of your life, you’re not talking over people, not only because it’s rude but it sounds horrendous.
But, once you’re expecting it, it’s really not all that difficult to tune it out, you just have to try. Concentration is a powerful thing, you can remove concentration from your hearing and point it at the words you’re saying, and tune it out, simply as that. It’ll take some practice if you’re not used to it, but I promise it’s a skill you can learn. Next time it happens to you, treat it like an opportunity to practice that skill, to focus on what you want to say without needing to listen to what’s being repeated back to you.
This is called the stenger phenomenon, and it’s used in audiology if you suspect malingering – someone claiming to have worse hearing than they do. You have them read a passage, and play back their voice with a delay at a volume they shouldn’t be able to hear it at if they’re being honest with their other tests, and watch for them to stumble.
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