Colin had researched, outlined, and practiced his speech carefully, but on the day he was to give the speech, his girl-friend broke up with him. He found it impossible to keep his mind on his speech or his audience and continually lost his place. What public speaking term best describes this situation?
a) psychological noise
b) speaker anxiety
c) auditory channel deficiency
d) physiological noise

In psychology, the term psychological noise refers to a mental interference that exists in the speaker. One form of psychological noise is wandering thoughts, in other words, the speaker is not focused and his thoughts keep wandering away from the topic he should focus in.

In this example, Colin had a very well practiced speech but on the day he was supposed to give it, his girlfriend broke up with him. Therefore, he found impossible to keep his mind on his speech or audience. We can see that Colin had difficulties staying focused and his mind kept wandering away from his speech because of what happened with his girlfriend. Therefore this would be an example of psychological noise.