p515dfi@mpirbn.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de (Daniel Fischer) (06/03/91)
Can someone here explain the following strange experience I had last night? Somewhere in the room there was an clock ticking very faintly (in daytime I hadn't even realized it was there), and when the ticking caught my atten= tion, I mentally concentrated on it. Guess what happened: the sound faded and was gone, to come back only after I stopped concentrating on it. Now, would this have happend in the area of *vision* I could come up with many explanations for a details being stared at going away (e.g. chemical effects on the retina or well-known optical illusions) - but WHAT MECHANISM makes a faint sound go away when you try to hear it better??? Awaiting your ideas: Daniel Fischer, p515dfi@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de