The generally accepted view that Broadbent's (1958) filter theory of attention was disproved by Gray and Wedderburn (1960) is questioned on the grounds that awareness of list organization may have confounded their results. The present study specifically manipulated awareness and compared the efficiency of grouping by class and grouping by ear in the recall of dichotic lists with either a crossed or an uncrossed structure. The Gray and Wedderburn effect, that is, class grouping more efficient than ear grouping, occurred both with and without awareness of list organization. The experiment is interpreted as an adequate disproof of filter theory.
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