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Mini: Colored Noise · Why We Do What We Do

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: You're listening to Why we do what we do. Welcome
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: to Why we do what we do Mini. I am
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: your host Abraham and I'm your host Shane. We are
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: a psychology podcast. We talk about the things that humans
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: and non human animals do, and sometimes we talk about
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the ideas we have about crossing the streams, which is
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: to say, sensations.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's how we describe it.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Usually when we talk about the way we feel on sensations,
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: it's yeah, it's crossing the streams, obviously.
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  Speaker 1: And this is a mini This is a short dive
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  Speaker 1: into a topic. We release these on Mondays. We touch
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: base on this thing and then we get out of
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: there in a quick, short amount of time. There's a
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  Speaker 1: lot of redundant adjectives and descriptions.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: But that it's the opposite of what you just did,
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: yeah or rapid.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: This is a long description of a short thing. If
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• 1:26
  Speaker 1: up some murch. I'll talk more about that a little
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: bit at the end of this discussion, but we need
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  Speaker 1: to jump into this because it's supposed to be mini
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  Speaker 1: Are you ready to get started?
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  Speaker 2: Let's do it all right.
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  Speaker 1: We have talked about sinnesthesia in the past, and this
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  Speaker 1: is not that. This is not a many on synesthesia. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: what we're talking about is this idea of colored noise.
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  Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is there are these
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  Speaker 1: noise patterns people apply the color to a sort of
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  Speaker 1: a sensation. So colored noises consist of several different sound
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  Speaker 1: patterns and then a color that people have attributed to
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  Speaker 1: that pattern arbitrarily, Like there's really nothing about this that
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  Speaker 1: indicates why that color would belong to that pattern. Sure, implicitly,
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  Speaker 1: but I think maybe intuitively you'll hear these and you'll
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  Speaker 1: be able to connect the dots in a way that
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  Speaker 1: feels like it makes sense. Yeah, but that's just what
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  Speaker 1: this is. That's just their noise patterns, and people call
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  Speaker 1: those noise patterns a color name.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's pretty much what it is.
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  Speaker 3: So if you're familiar with white noise, and here's an example,
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  Speaker 3: get off my law let me talk to your manager.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Wow, that was good. That was very funny.
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  Speaker 2: I thought you'd like that. Here's an example.
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  Speaker 3: Then you already have it a decent idea of what
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  Speaker 3: other colored noises are. You've probably got an experience with
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  Speaker 3: green noise, brown noise, stuff like that, which we'll talk about.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: These largely claim to help with something that's going on
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  Speaker 1: with you, like they're supposed to have some attribute relative
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  Speaker 1: to your biology and psychology. They claim to help with sleep, relaxation,
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  Speaker 1: or focus. But of course some will even go as
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  Speaker 1: far as to claim that they'll treat physical and psychological
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  Speaker 1: health issues.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Interesting, I love noise treatment. It's great.
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  Speaker 3: The high number we found was seven different color noise profiles, white, brown, green, pink, blue, violet,
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  Speaker 3: and gray, each with quote unquote distinctive ish sound patterns.
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  Speaker 3: And so you know you can kind of hear them
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  Speaker 3: in maybe pick out those colors.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, particularly if we tell you what they are first.
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  Speaker 2: Sure.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, So the language of colors, the idea of using
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  Speaker 1: these colors to name these sound patterns is supposed to
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  Speaker 1: help them be memorable, just so you could like attribute
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  Speaker 1: this pattern and say, oh, that's that color, because it
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  Speaker 1: gives it a name of some sort, and I guess
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  Speaker 1: it conjures some other sort of experiences being a soci
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  Speaker 1: with the color that we would have familiarity with those
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  Speaker 1: of us who do not have vision impairment that prevents
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  Speaker 1: that sort of thing. But metaphorically it aligns a little
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  Speaker 1: bit with this idea of like a rainbow, right, and
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  Speaker 1: this ties the idea to nature, at least in an extent,
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  Speaker 1: So it sort of implies that these are sound patterns
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  Speaker 1: that are maybe attributable to sound patterns of nature, and
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  Speaker 1: the particular nature they're associated with then can have a
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  Speaker 1: color that we would recognize.
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  Speaker 3: Sure, so white noise besides what I the example that
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  Speaker 3: we gave earlier is equal distribution of sound across all frequencies.
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  Speaker 3: It is a sound of TV static and also has
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  Speaker 3: been described as fuzzy.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, kind of a hiss type sound or.
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  Speaker 2: Like a hum. I could seem like a little bit
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  Speaker 2: of a homia.
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  Speaker 1: Sure, sure, it's got this like a very shit. So anyway,
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  Speaker 1: so that's white noise. Pink noise is another one, as
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  Speaker 1: we mentioned and this has greater amplitude at lower frequencies,
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  Speaker 1: meaning that the lower frequency these sounds are louder. But
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  Speaker 1: then the frequencies decrease with volume as it goes to
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  Speaker 1: the higher frequencies. So it starts with the loudest ones
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  Speaker 1: are the lowest, and as it goes toward the top
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  Speaker 1: you get quieter and quieter presentation of the higher frequency.
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  Speaker 1: So you still get pretty much the entire range of
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  Speaker 1: frequencies that we would hear, but the volume is pushed
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  Speaker 1: at the lowest end of it.
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  Speaker 2: Does that make sense, Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: So this has been compared to leaves rustling, the hum
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  Speaker 1: of an airplane cabin, a steady rain on a metallic roof,
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  Speaker 1: And this one claims to improve your memory.
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  Speaker 3: So there's that super interesting. Next, we've got brown noise.
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  Speaker 3: It's pretty much all low frequencies and few are no
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  Speaker 3: higher frequencies. This is compared to like rolling thunder in
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  Speaker 3: the distance, a cat purring, a crackling fire. Some also
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  Speaker 3: claims this supports focus and increased attention span. But more importantly,
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  Speaker 3: we have a really good example of brown noise right now,
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  Speaker 3: and it is an ad.
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  Speaker 1: All right, we're back from that break. The ad noise.
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  Speaker 1: So the next color here we have is green noise. Now,
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  Speaker 1: this amplifies only the middle ranges of the frequencies in
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  Speaker 1: the sort of the frequency spectrum. This one is compared
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  Speaker 1: to rolling waves, driving noises, which stress than her plane cabin,
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  Speaker 1: and heavy rainfall. I'm okay with they have a rainfall
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  Speaker 1: and rolling waves, but driving noises no. Thank you? Sure
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  Speaker 1: for me, maybe for the people. That's very soothing. This
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  Speaker 1: impressively claims to soothe symptoms of ADHD. Wow, amazing and
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  Speaker 1: help you feel both relaxed and focused at the same time.
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  Speaker 1: The true cocaine of colored sound as green noise.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's exactly it.
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  Speaker 3: Like you're not necessarily grinding your teeth, but you do
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  Speaker 3: want to talk a lot.
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  Speaker 2: I guess.
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  Speaker 3: So there's blue noise, which is the opposite of brown
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  Speaker 3: noise and focuses only on amplifying high sound frequencies and
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  Speaker 3: using few or no lower frequencies. This is compared to
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  Speaker 3: a hissing hose, which is just a snake, a computer fan,
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  Speaker 3: or steam escaping a pipe.
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  Speaker 2: This supposedly increases alertness.
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  Speaker 1: We'll get to book about Back to that sure violet
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  Speaker 1: slash purple noise. I saw both. This is even more
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  Speaker 1: extreme blue noise. It contains tight traded amounts of the
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  Speaker 1: highest amplification at the highest frequencies and no low frequencies
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  Speaker 1: at all, as compared to a high pitch hiss or
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  Speaker 1: sizzle the running of a sink faucet. And this is
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  Speaker 1: specifically touted as supporting a wakeness and being a good
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  Speaker 1: mask for tinadous for people who have tenatus, such as myself.
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  Speaker 3: Interesting, well, that's good to know. So you can just
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  Speaker 3: listen to violet noise and then grain noise is supposedly
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  Speaker 3: more smoothed out white noise with even distribution across frequencies. However,
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  Speaker 3: we experience different pitches as louder than others, even when
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  Speaker 3: they are technically at the same volume. So grain noise
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  Speaker 3: has an acoustic sound curve applied to even out the
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  Speaker 3: perception of different frequencies so that it creates a less
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  Speaker 3: intensive sound experience. You know what's funny is like with
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  Speaker 3: white noise and gray noise. You know what it makes
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  Speaker 3: me think of is like I just want to listen
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  Speaker 3: to see your rose.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, very nice. I don't know, because that.
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  Speaker 3: One album, the one album with the parentheses album is
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  Speaker 3: like all white and gray.
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  Speaker 2: So like I think, I guess I think of that.
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  Speaker 2: It's my own relational frame, you know.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, the whole idea with the gray noise is
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  Speaker 1: just that because with white noise, some pitches, even though
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  Speaker 1: they're at the same technical loudness, they sound louder because
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  Speaker 1: that pitch just sounds loud to us. And so when
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  Speaker 1: they even them all out, if you listen to gray noise,
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  Speaker 1: it does have a very even sound even though encompasses
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  Speaker 1: all frequencies. The volume of the frequencies is curved to
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  Speaker 1: make them all sound even, and it has a less
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  Speaker 1: abrasive sound than white noise. Sure, so then we have
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  Speaker 1: of course, some people will include things like red and
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  Speaker 1: yellow noise to more clearly map out the color spectrum.
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  Speaker 1: But whatever, I think those just overlap with some of
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  Speaker 1: the other ones that we mentioned. Importantly here is we've
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  Speaker 1: got to ask, then, like we've enumerated what these things are,
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  Speaker 1: what they say that they are, what they're supposed to do,
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  Speaker 1: and sound like, what do you say? Science?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we called science and here's what science said.
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  Speaker 3: So science said, to date, there are no systematic studies
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  Speaker 3: that actually show that any of these is better at
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  Speaker 3: promoting sleep, and there is even less reason to believe
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  Speaker 3: that any one of them do anything to improve our
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  Speaker 3: focus or mental health conditions. And we say, like systematic studies,
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  Speaker 3: I think it's really important to know that there's no
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  Speaker 3: evidence on that level.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, nothing that really says convincingly that these do
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  Speaker 1: anything remotely like what they say that they do in
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  Speaker 1: the extent to which they accomplish anything at all. It
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  Speaker 1: is that sounds are loud and varied enough to drown
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  Speaker 1: out other sounds, like that's what they do. We listen
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  Speaker 1: to these sounds that become an all encompassing experience in
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  Speaker 1: our immediate circumstance. That makes it harder for our ears
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  Speaker 1: to pick up other sounds because they can't make it
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  Speaker 1: through all that noise. Sure, and that by itself can
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  Speaker 1: help us fall asleep because it's preventing the unexpected like
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  Speaker 1: random cacophony of sounds that might catch our attention and
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  Speaker 1: drowning them with like an ongoing stream of invariable sound,
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  Speaker 1: like sound that doesn't change really and therefore those things
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  Speaker 1: are less likely to catch our attention distract us. And
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  Speaker 1: so there's this variability and external sounds that would otherwise
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  Speaker 1: grab our attention awake or trying to sleep, really, and
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  Speaker 1: that having one unified sort of experience of sound makes
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  Speaker 1: it so those other sounds just can't reach us as easily.
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  Speaker 1: So that's that is largely the way in which this works, right.
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  Speaker 3: And if we're trying to focus, these sounds can also
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  Speaker 3: help drown out distractions around us that might otherwise grab
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  Speaker 3: our attention, And that's really all they do. They are
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: basically the same as earplugs, except rather than blocking auditory stimulation,
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  Speaker 3: they just overwhelm it. They mask other stimuli that might
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  Speaker 3: be in our environment.
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  Speaker 1: The other consideration is the frequencies themselves. I mean, higher
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  Speaker 1: pitch frequencies tend to be more grading for humans, like
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  Speaker 1: we don't really like those sounds, sure, so it stands
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  Speaker 1: to reason that these might be better at helping some
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  Speaker 1: people stay awake by virtue of the fact that they
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  Speaker 1: are difficult to listen to.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: Lower pitch sounds, which we might even have trouble discriminating,
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  Speaker 1: clearly might be less likely to hold our attention and
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  Speaker 1: keep us alert because they're less obnoxious. But that's about it.
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  Speaker 1: That's as much as really makes sense to determine the
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: extent to which and how these would have the effect
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  Speaker 1: they're supposed to have.
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  Speaker 3: Right, and these sounds also gain some of their effects
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  Speaker 3: through repeated association, so importantly, we can both become dependent
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  Speaker 3: on these or habituate to their effects. If we always
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: use these sounds to study, playing them may get us
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  Speaker 3: in the mood to study.
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  Speaker 1: And similarly, if we always use them to fall asleep,
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  Speaker 1: we might start to need them to fall asleep, even
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  Speaker 1: in environments where we have no distracting sounds, and we
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  Speaker 1: might have become so dependent on that as an associated
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  Speaker 1: cueue with the onset of sleep, that we kind of
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: depend on it to help us actually fall asleep comfortably.
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  Speaker 1: Even if you don't have a history with that sound,
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  Speaker 1: it may take a while to develop the effect it's
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: supposed to have, which does kind of illuminate the fact
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  Speaker 1: that the effect is created. This is not inherent to
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: the sound themselves. You can kind of use any one
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: of them to help you fall asleep, and the one
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: that is successful helping you fall asleep, if you just
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: keep using it over and over again, it will develop
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: that queue and association, and maybe some of them they'll
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: happen faster, because again, some of them are just hard
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: to listen to, but they can all sort of do
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  Speaker 1: the same thing in an actuality.
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  Speaker 3: Right, we can habituate to the effect that we're trying
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  Speaker 3: to create. However, it is less likely to happen very
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: organically because, as we mentioned, they simply drown out other sounds.
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  Speaker 3: So artificial associations can fade, but the sheer mechanical auditory
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  Speaker 3: effect will not unless you lose your hearing.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's it. That's how color sounds works and
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  Speaker 1: the extents to which they work those are pretty much
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  Speaker 1: the things.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it works through conditioning.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, people might tell you it like stimulates your nerve
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  Speaker 1: or tickles your brain or I don't know, massages your aura.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: But but what it does is drawn to other sounds
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: and then has an association with cues of the environment. Yep,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: that's it, nail, We did it all right, very good.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: If you'd like to tell us your experience with your
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: favorite colored sounds, we love to hear those things. You
• 13:15
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• 13:17
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• 13:21
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• 13:23
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• 13:40
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• 13:43
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  Speaker 2: You should, You should join that crew.
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  Speaker 3: You should so come to peer pressure and do what
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  Speaker 3: your friends are doing.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: That's right, all the cool kids are doing it, so
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  Speaker 1: you should see.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: That's true. It's like peeing your pants, just like that.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: And thank you all for listening. Thank you to my
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: team of people for helping me make this show. Thank
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: you for recording with me today Shane on our rare
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: late Thursday evening. Is there anything that I missed or
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: that you'd like to add before we wrap this one up?
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: Not today?
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: All right? Then Why We Do What We Do Mini
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: is out.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: Bye. You've been listening to Why We Do What We Do.
• 14:51
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• 14:53
  Speaker 3: By going to WWD WWD podcast dot com.
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