Chapter 7: Listening Notes

Vocabulary flashcards covering the stages, concepts, types of noise, memory structures, and significance of the listening process from Chapter 7.

Listening

The learned, non-linear process of receiving, interpreting, recalling, evaluating, and responding to verbal and nonverbal messages.

Salience

The degree to which something attracts our attention in a particular context, often because it is audibly or visually stimulating or meets our needs and interests.

Environmental Noise

Physical, external sounds that can influence the listening process, such as other people talking, sounds of traffic, and music.

Psychological Noise

Internal cognitive or emotional states that influence the listening process, such as stress, anger, or a headache.

Schemata

Cognitive frameworks used to combine visual and auditory information to make meaning of messages; they are revised or updated when comparing new information with old experiences.

Credibility

An aspect of message evaluation in which the listener determines the degree to which they believe the speaker's statements.

Completeness

An aspect of message evaluation in which the listener tries to "read between the lines" and evaluate the message in relation to what is already known.

Worth

An aspect of message evaluation where the listener makes a value judgment regarding whether a message is good or bad, right or wrong.

Back-channel Cues

Nonverbal and verbal signals sent while someone is talking that indicate attentiveness and understanding (or lack thereof), generally serving as positive feedback.

Paraphrasing

A responding behavior where the listener rephrases the speaker's message into their own words to demonstrate understanding of what was communicated.

Prompting

Asking a combination of open and closed questions to help an individual discover and articulate the emotions they are experiencing when struggling to express how they feel.

Sensory Storage

A physiological component of memory that is large in terms of capacity, but limited in terms of the length of storage.

Empathetic Listening

A type of listening that expands self and social awareness by learning from others' experiences and helping the listener adopt different perspectives.

Communication Goals

The four categories of objectives achieved through effective listening: physical, instrumental, relational, and identity goals.