Fifty-six subjects each listened to four types of dichotic input: digit-digit, tone-tone, digit (left ear)-tone (right ear), and tone (left ear)-digit (right ear). When digits were paired with tones, performance improved substantially over that with digit-digit and tone-tone input, and material-specific ear differences disappeared. The results indicate that both capacity limitation and an advantage of the contra-lateral over the ipsilateral input appear only when inputs from the two ears compete for the same kind of processing.
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