Abstract
The results of previous experiments suggest that when listeners are asked to repeat back prose arriving at one ear, their performance is unaffected by the presence (in the other ear) of another independent prose passage in the same voice and of equal intensity. In the present study dichotic messages were employed in which the words were presented quasi-simultaneously and were not connected in meaning. Considerable performance decrement was found from a message on the irrelevant ear even if that message was less intense than that on the relevant ear. Different kinds of error occur, but the principle form of error is a response which is incorrect but nevertheless clearly related to the word presented to the relevant ear. The results extend the findings of Treisman (1967, 1970) who found considerable interference in dichotic listening to pairs of words exactly matched for time of onset; and suggest a general difficulty of selective attention when non-prose material is used.
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