When to acknowledge ATC

George Patterson wrote:
.... in addition to that, I don't "snap to attention" when someone
addresses me. I'm typically thinking, sightseeing, or daydreaming. I
also spend a fair amount of any long flight listening to music (though
not when I'm near something like class-D airspace).

George,

From what you describe above I wonder if you actually may have some
form of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).(?) I myself had similar
attention type problems that I assumed were due to my ears fading as a
result of all the rock n' roll concerts, guns, getting older, loud women
I've dated(ha!), and other noise that inundated my ears as a younger man.

I discovered just a few years ago that the problems were not that I
*couldn't* hear but that I *didn't* hear because my brain did not kick
in immediately when being addressed. I would constantly miss the
beginning of a conversation and sometimes drift off in the middle of it.
I could not concentrate on anything that was mundane, repetitious, or
"colorless" regardless of how important it was to me. I was often
distracted away by my own thoughts from a conversation or the task at hand.

I did some training and, vol la! I found out that there really was never
anything wrong with my hearing in the first place! I just wasn't paying
attention.

Just thinking out loud....hope that's not distracting. ;-)

Antonio