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Background

When a room is full with stuffs like furniture, electronic utilities, books etc. it's hard to hear reflections of sounds made by us (talking, playing an instrument, sound from falling objects).

But, when the room is empty we quite easily hear the reflections of sound which is according to physics perfectly legit.

However, what seems interesting to me that when we suddenly empty a room with stuffs, the change in hearing reflection of sounds has a great impact on our ear. I personally experienced this phenomenon several times while emptying a room for cleaning and other purposes.

Question

  1. Is it because of the sudden nature of the phenomenon described above, the phenomenon seems to have a greater impact on our ears?

  2. What would happen if we try to get used to the empty room environment? Would sensory adaptation slowly diminishes our sensibility towards reflection?

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  • $\begingroup$ Just to be clear, what do you mean when you say "great impact on our ear" ? $\endgroup$ – Dexter Aug 28 '17 at 9:07
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    $\begingroup$ I am wondering if maybe this type of question could be answerable on Physics.SE? I have a feeling that there may not be a biological explanation, but maybe it could be explained by the soundwaves themselves. I'm sure someone there knows how sound-waves interact with different surfaces and themselves, and I'm sure someone there knows how noise-detection works. $\endgroup$ – Bob Aug 29 '17 at 4:58
  • $\begingroup$ @Bob I think it's more psychological than physical! $\endgroup$ – Mockingbird Aug 29 '17 at 5:35
  • $\begingroup$ Well, bring it to Psychology.SE then. I was just trying to let you know that there might be more options =D $\endgroup$ – Bob Aug 29 '17 at 5:47
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    $\begingroup$ Riight.. CognitiveScience.SE $\endgroup$ – Bob Aug 29 '17 at 6:31

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