Final answer:
Dichotic listening is the lab setup that resembles the situation described. It involves focusing on one auditory stimulus while ignoring another. This concept is related to selective attention and the cocktail party effect.
Step-by-step explanation:
The lab setup that resembles the situation you described is dichotic listening. It is an experimental technique used to study how people select and attend to auditory stimuli in complex environments. In this setup, different auditory information is presented simultaneously to each ear, requiring the participant to focus on and process one message while ignoring the other.
This concept is related to selective attention, which refers to the ability to focus on specific stimuli while filtering out irrelevant or distracting information. In the cafe scenario you mentioned, you are engaging in selective attention by trying to focus on the comment from the person on your left, while tuning out the conversation from the person on your right.
The term cocktail party effect is also relevant here. It describes our ability to selectively attend to one conversation in a noisy environment, like focusing on the comment from the person on your left while ignoring the background noise and conversation on your right.