Selective attention. I. Two-channel simultaneous frequency difference limen

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Abstract
A set of experiments which assesses the ability of human observers to monitor 2 earphone channels for the purpose of performing 1 or 2 independent and simultaneous frequency difference-limen tasks is described. Performance (d'') was significantly poorer with dichotic stimulus presentation than with monaural, control conditions. Under dichotic presentation conditions, performance was equivalent whether the observers were instructed to listen to one or both channels. A detailed analysis of the data indicated that the observers could discriminate a change but seemed to have difficulty in identifying the channel in which the change occurred. Consistent with results reported previously using intensity detection or discriminations, observers could not successfully monitor more than 1 channel. When the dichotic stimulus presentation provides useful information which is not present during monaural tasks (i.e., lateralization cues), observers apparently may be able, using this added information, to perform a divided attention task with little or no apparent performance decrement relative to single-channel tasks.

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