I recommend hitting the “Replay” button every time you miss the target sentence (just so you know, “Replay” only shows up after you see the answer).
For the best results, do this every single time.
Nobody’s watching. Press Replay again (and again) until you hear the target sentence. This is where learning happens!
A research study looked at how difficult a task should be for learning to occur. Learning does not occur when a task is too easy.
Now you’re probably wondering if a listening task can be too difficult. The answer is no.
The study asked participants to distinguish between two identical tones. There was no difference between them. This was an impossible task, and yet, a learning effect still occurred. How could that be?
According to The Brain that Changes Itself, children are primed to learn new skills easily because their brains pump out huge amounts of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which keeps the nucleus basalis “on”—the part that helps form memories and tells the brain “Hey, this is important!”
In adults, the nucleus basalis can be stimulated when we pay close attention.
When the nucleus basalis is stimulated, we hold on to connections that are being formed in the brain.
In other words, when you pay close attention, you learn. And if you pay close attention while doing targeted exercises to hear better in noise, you learn to hear better in noise.
This is exciting—your listening abilities are not fixed! You can learn to hear better in noise.
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