4 Forms of Noise

Communication noise refers to influences on effective communication that influence the interpretation of consersations. While often looked over, communication noise can have a profound impact both on our perception of interactions with others and our analysis of our own communication proficiency.

There are four types of communication noise

• Psychological Noise
• Physical Noise
• Physiological Noise
• Semantic Noise

Psychological noise

Psychological noise results from preconceived notions we bring to conversations, such as racial stereotypes, reputations, biases , and assumptions. When we come into a conversation with ideas about what the other person is going to say and why, we can easily become blinded to their original message. Most of the time psychological noise is impossible to free ourselves from, and we must simply strive to recognize that it exists and take those distractions into account when we converse with others.

Physical noise

Physical noise is any external or environmental stimulus that distracts us from receiving the intended message sent by a communicator. Examples of physical noise include: others talking in the background, background music, a startling noise and acknowledging someone outside of the conversation.

Physiological noise

Physiological noise is the bodily factors which influence communication. This includes the way these feelings and movements affect both the sender and the receiver. The sender may feel sick to his or her stomach and have a racing heart caused by nervousness about a public speech or stress from work. The receiver may notice the sender sweating, twitching, or glancing away. All these noises affect the way the sender is able to effectively communicate as well as the way the receiver is able to effectively decode the message. The receiver may intrepret these signs of nerves to the sender being dishonest without there being any verbal clue to indicate that the he or she is lying.

Semantic noise

Of the various forms of noise, semantic noise may be the most common and difficult to define. It can best be described as particular diction or syntax that leads to confusion or misinterpretation of the intended message. One reason semantic noise is so widespread is how easily it can extend to written language. For example, the reader may perceive this article to be correct if it is written well enough, though that has little to do with the content. However, a person using language this formal in casual conversation may seem a bit strange. Semantic noise often takes the form of disrespectful or outdated terminology that offends a particular group or demographic. It also occurs with words or phrases that mean different things to different people. Indeed, semantic noise occurs to some extent or another in almost all forms of verbal communication