Informational Listening

Listening is ‘Not an attempt to understand something that is being said’ but ‘Just an attention to the activity of sounds’

1. Stephen R. Covey writes, "Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen

James Petersen (2007) uses five parts to describe the talking and listening to help us process a better way of communicating and understanding each other. They are provided to help us connect in our relationships with others. According to Petersen, most of us think we listen well, but we don’t. Not

Active listening builds trust and mutual respect between the sender and receiver of any message and has the potential to reduce faulty conflicts caused through misunderstandings because one party did not listen to the entire message presented (Boone & Makhani, 2012; Campbell, 2011). This is crucial in the military as all personnel must have a clear understanding of what is expected of each member of a team and focus on the situations at hand. The interpretation of information builds cognition of new information that matures through various stages of learning and ability to recall specific details, following directions, paraphrasing, identifying the main idea, devising goals (Wallace, 2013).

Confirmation bias is a tendency of people to prefer information that reinforces a thought or believe that they have. People demonstrate this bias when they retain information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way. The effect is stronger for emotional issues and for deeply rooted beliefs. (Science Daily)

A vital aspect of interpersonal communication is the style in which one listens. While every individual possesses their own preferred method of listening in communication, it can be enlightening to analyze our own strengths and weaknesses so as to maximize effectual communication. Within the confines of four main listening style categories, I have chosen those which best describe my own personal listening style.

What is active listening, it the process of information, which uses all of our senses to convey a message through perceiving of sound? Our, hearing, smell, taste and touch are part of our senses that we sometimes use without knowing we are doing it. Moreover, listening correctly, can be a crucial part of encoding and decoding the message, for clarification and understanding what the message is conveying. While deciphering messages, you get a sense of understanding what the message is trying to express. Next, is trying to remember or recall what the message is so that you can retain it. Also, evaluating what you hear and decoded or deciphered it is essential to understanding what the message is. When we actively listen, there is some paraphrasing during this process, where you have to restate the information given by the speaker into your own words. Lastly, responding to the message with an answer, it could be for learning purposes, personal, enjoyment or even employment, it is important to listen to ensure understanding actively. As we respond, there is an answer and feedback given (DeVito 2016) as a response.

When there is good listening in a story it make the certain character remember what someone said or did so that later in the story they can make decisions based on what was said or done. An example from Castaway was when Chuck was listening to the conversation about his coworker’s wife being sick and when he gets back from the island he apologises for not acting up when he should have. There are some times when communication can be bad or one sided, and that causes for miscommunications and failed communications. An example of a failed or one sided communication is when Chuck starts talking to Wilson the volleyball for his talking needs so he wouldn’t go

People tend to process incoming information quicker than its output by the speaker causing them to quickly jump to conclusions, evaluate, or predict what will be said next. "Most individuals speak at the rate of 175 to 200 words per minute. However, research suggests that we are very capable of listening and processing words at the rate of 6000 to 1,000 words per minute....This unused brain power can be a barrier to effective listening, causing the auditor to miss or misinterpret what others are saying."(Lewis 2003). Listeners are often side tracked when listening, whether it be internal or external distractions. People have a habit of only listening to what they want to hear instead of what is actually being said.

Listening is more complex, and it encourages one to analyze and think about an idea, rather than to simply accept it (or “hear” it). Hearing is a skill that is beneficial for every aspect of life. As long as we have our ability to hear, we will always perceive different sounds, music, and voices. Listening, however, is beneficial to us in specific instances. It is important for us to attain good listening skills in education, the work force, and in our relationships with others in order to succeed. Good listening in education will bring about confident participation in class discussions; good listening in the workplace will lead to cooperation and good teamwork among colleagues; good listening in relationships is healthy and positive, for it is important to hear what an individual has to say in order to know how they feel.

Listening is an important form of communication. Unfortunately, many people who do not know how to listen believe they can listen well. They often say "I have been doing this all of my life of course I can listen". Listening is not inherited, or a personality trait, it is a skill that must be worked on and practiced.

Listening is more than just hearing. The process of listening involves receiving and constructing meaning, and responding to verbal and/or nonverbal messages. In other words, listening is not always easy and being a good listener is all about developing listening skills. To receive messages appropriately we have to listen actively. Active listening can be broken down into three important skills; first of all you have to reflect the feelings that the person is communicating, secondly reflect the content that they are communicating and finally ask good, meaningful questions.

When listening for information the goal is to gain and evaluate the information given to us. We get this information from various places throughout our day to day lives. For example, in classes, new stories, political debates, and more. We may need guidance during a doctor’s appointment or when given directions. During all of these cases “we listen to gain and understand information in order to act appropriately” (Wood, 2015).

Ch. 4 Objectives • Listening is different from hearing • Listening is a process • There are distractions to listening • Criticism is a process • Criticism must be balanced • Focus on wheat your critic says, not how they say it. The importance of listening College Student retention rate: • Spend 53% of time listening • Remember 50% of what is heard • After 2 days, remember 25% of the message • After that, 20% at best Hearing Listening Focused Voluntary Intentional

Better listening leads to better recollection of important info this results in fewer mistakes. Thus, attention to good listening technique is important when complex issues are involved.