Cocktail Party Effect

The cocktail party effect is the phenomenon where unattended channels can still surface personally relevant information, like your name spoken across a noisy room.

Example

You’re in a loud room following one conversation, ignoring all the others, then someone across the room says your name and your attention jumps over.

The point: unattended channels are not fully filtered out.

Related

• Broadbent’s Filter Theory: classic challenge to it
• Deutsch-Norman Late Selection: evidence for