Marie is participating in a dichotic listening study and is asked to ignore any information that is presented to her right ear. she finds that she has no problems in being able to follow the instruction, except for when she thinks she hears her name in her right ear. marie is experiencing:

the cocktail-party phenomenon.

Explanation:

For psychoacoustics, cocktail-party phenomenon is our hearing system's amazing ability to focus on specific sound, even in an environment with other sounds, such as being able to understand a conversation even in an environment full of distractions - as in a party, for example.

While this skill is undervalued in our daily lives, it is amazing that we are able to focus on just one name or conversation and ignore everything else even in a noisy environment. The cocktail-party phenomenon also allows us to wander through other conversations if the dialogue we are involved in is not interesting enough. This phenomenon explains what is going on with Marie when she can ignore everything she is hearing in her right ear until she thinks she has heard a specific name.