The effects of prior inputs on auditory perceptual processing

Two experiments are reported on subjects’ ability to attend to an auditory channel (i.e., ear of input). The subjects’ task was to identify the last tone (target) in a sequence of tones as “sharp ” or “dull. ” The results indicated that when all tones of a given sequence were presented in the same ear, the target was more easily and rapidly identified than when half of the tones were randomly presented to each ear. For sequences in which half of the tones were presented to each ear, the greater the number of successive tones in the same ear as the target, the better or faster the target was identified. Differences were generally greater with a shorter intertone interval (250 msec) than with a longer one (600 msec). The results show that “attentional ” effects can occur when prior inputs are present on a given auditory channel.