What? Nevermind, got it.

March 9, 2015 10:44 AM

Someone will say a sentence, and at first I won't process what the person said, but after a second my brain will catch up, and I'll understand what was said. What is this called?

So the conversation goes like this:

Person: *says something*

I know they've said a sentence, but I'm not sure what that sentence is - it sounds like gibberish. This usually happens when I'm concentrating on something else, or I didn't realize the person was addressing me.

Me: What?

Suddenly, I'll understand the sentence.

Me: Oh, nevermind, got it.

And I'll go on to respond.

I hope I'm not alone in having this happen to me. Is there a name for this phenomenon? What causes it?

posted by rebooter to Science & Nature (19 answers total)

I don't know what it's called, if anything, but I can tell you you're definitely not that only one; it happens to me all the time.
posted by holborne at 10:50 AM on March 9, 2015 [10 favorites]

Being human.

Perfectly normal and happens to everyone. Our brains work in serial. Which means processing one-thing-at-a-time. Multitaskers are just incredibly good at switching between things quickly. That delay is just your brain switching from the (mental) task you were aggressively focusing on to processing what the person said.
posted by royalsong at 10:51 AM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

Echoic Memory perhaps?
posted by JDHarper at 10:51 AM on March 9, 2015

At my house we call it "catching the echo," as in, "Nevermind, I caught the echo."
posted by SeedStitch at 10:52 AM on March 9, 2015 [6 favorites]

You're definitely not alone. I don't know the official name for it but tend to think of it as "lag time," while my brain switches gears. It also happens sometimes when a person hasn't spoken very clearly (either they're mumbling or doing some kind of silly voice). From a physiological perspective, your brain cannot possibly interpret all of the available input in a given scenario--it has to select what inputs to process. But you've HEARD it, it is just that you then need to "tell" your brain: understand this thing please.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:52 AM on March 9, 2015

Happens to me too.

I have, over the years, managed to train myself to not reflexively say "what" all the time right after a sentence that I didn't immediately parse. Most of the time, just taking a microsecond break to pause and think about what was said gives me time to figure it out. Hopefully, the pause makes me look thoughtful or like a good listener, as opposed to a mental deficient who cannot understand words as they are said.
posted by sparklemotion at 10:54 AM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

What's this called?

Normal? Slow on the uptake?
posted by cecic at 10:58 AM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

Delayed auditory processing.
posted by Conspire at 11:15 AM on March 9, 2015 [9 favorites]

You must be related to my husband. I have learned over the years not to repeat myself when he says "What?" to my statement, because seconds later, he'll "get" it and answer it.
posted by BostonTerrier at 11:19 AM on March 9, 2015 [2 favorites]

Happens to me all the time, usually under the conditions you've listed. No idea what it's officially called; I call it spooling.
posted by peteyjlawson at 11:21 AM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

I think of it as speaking too soon when I do it.
posted by rhizome at 11:25 AM on March 9, 2015

I do this too, to the point that my wife won't respond to my "What?" 90% of the time. It happens to me most in a distracted or noisy environment, so I think that backs up the slow brain processing thing. I've also noticed that this happens when I am not looking at the person, probably because I unconsciously read lips in loud situations.
posted by sleeping bear at 11:44 AM on March 9, 2015

Much like sparklemotion I have trained myself (or attempted to train myself) not to say "What?" whenever I didn't catch what was said to me. I'm perfectly content to stand there for a second and make a vaguely serious face and then respond once my brain is informed.

And on the rare occasion I don't get it after a second or two I just say, "You know that thing where you hear something but you don't understand it so you say "What?" and then as soon as you say "What?" you finally process what you heard? I was trying to wait it out but ... it's still gibberish. You mind repeating that?" which, if played correctly, gets far more laughs than you'd think it would.
posted by komara at 12:48 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm not sure it has an official name. In psycholinguistics we called it re-parsing -where you have the initial information and your brain starts to try to make sense of it but it doesn't work.

It is used to study how we understand things like syntax using something called 'garden path sentences' where you give a sentence that starts out making you interpret it one way and then turns out to be another.
posted by kadia_a at 12:49 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

You might have a mild form of auditory processing disorder. The term "CAPD" might be useful to you as a term to google. Here is the Wikipedia page.
posted by Michele in California at 1:32 PM on March 9, 2015

Agree with all the others, but just wanted to add that it could be worth getting your hearing checked. Often the first part of your hearing to start going is the high frequency stuff which is what distinguishes consonant sounds from each other. I have moderate hearing loss and wear hearing aids sometimes. The "what? nevermind" thing definitely happens a lot more often when I'm not wearing my hearing aids. I suspect it's because there's a lot more possibilities for what someone said when you are missing some of the specific sounds, so it takes longer to process.
posted by procrastinator_general at 5:18 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Agree with procrastinator_general. In the last decade my hearing loss has progressed from mild to the far end of moderate, especially with the higher frequencies. The more I lose, the longer it takes my brain to decode quiet voices when I'm not facing the speaker.
posted by Lycaon_pictus at 8:40 PM on March 9, 2015 [1 favorite]

Nth'ing delayed auditory processing. I'm also have this, and my wife usually waits for my second "What?" if I didn't hear. After a hearing test when I was 34 or 35 that declared my hearing mostly normal (some slight loss, but not in a range which should impact hearing/understanding voice), I looked into getting help for auditory processing. At least in my area, they only offer help for young children.
posted by nobeagle at 7:14 AM on March 10, 2015

You have a slow processing speed or, if we're being nicer, a long processing time.
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:34 PM on March 13, 2015