Chapter 1. Dichotic Listening

1.1 Introduction

Cognitive Tool Kit
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Dichotic Listening

This experiment is a replication of work done by Cherry (1953) in the subfield of cognitive psychology known as attention. Cherry’s work dealt specifically with the topic of selective attention—the ability to choose one stimulus among many to attend to and comprehend. Selective attention is often measured using the “cocktail party effect.” We are very good at attending to one conversation in the context of several simultaneous conversations.

1.2 Experiment Setup

1.3 Instructions

Instructions

Please put on a set of headphones. Then, you will need to press the space bar to begin the experiment. You will hear two streams of audio—one in each of your ears. Please repeat (or “shadow”) the words you hear in the left or right ear as instructed. When the task is concluded, you will be asked several questions about it.

1.4 Experiment

Begin Experiment

1.5 Results

Results

1.6 Debriefing

Debriefing

Cherry (1953) conducted research on auditory attention using a dichotic listening task. His work has been used in the context of examining the “cocktail party effect” and has also inspired research on Change deafness, the finding that even highly salient changes are often missed if attention is directed elsewhere. Cherry’s research demonstrated that individuals do not remember the content of verbal information that is not attended to. These studies inspired models of processing later developed by Broadbent and Treisman. Cherry’s work continues to be relevant to both attention and auditory researchers, and his seminal 1953 paper has received thousands of citations and inspired countless research projects.

References:

Cherry, E. (1953). Some experiments on the recognition of speech, with one and with two ears. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 25, 975-979.

Broadbent, D. (1958). Perception and Communication. London: Pergamon.

Treisman, A. (1964). Selective attention in man. British Medical Bulletin, 20, 12-16.

1.7 Quiz

Quiz

Question 1.1

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1
Correct.
Incorrect.
The cocktail party effect is related to selective attention—the ability to attend to one stimulus among many.

Question 1.2

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1
Correct.
Incorrect.
The primary independent variable is the content of the unattended ear—that is, the ear that the participant is not shadowing.

Question 1.3

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1
Correct.
Incorrect.
The primary dependent variable is the participant’s recognition score for the stimuli presented to the unattended ear.

Question 1.4

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Correct.
Incorrect.
Cherry found that the language being spoken could be detected, as well as the inclusion of the participant’s name.

Question 1.5

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Correct.
Incorrect.
In a shadowing experiment, the participants’ task is to repeat the message word-for-word.