To foster greater appreciation of hearing's role in their everyday life, members of my Sensory Processes class "deafened" themselves temporarily, by wearing earplugs for eight consecutive hours. When properly inserted, the earplugs produced about 25-30 db attentuation.
The students were asked to pay special attention to the way that their interactions with other people were altered by this temporary hearing impairment, and to relate those changes to known changes in the information reaching their ears.
Here are some of the responses.