The effect of asymmetrically focused attention upon subsequent ear differences in dichotic listening.

In a series of four experiments, normal right-handed adults engaged in dichotic listening with free-report instructions after having completed a selective listening task. The usual right-ear advantage (REA) for dichotic digit names was altered according to the ear previously monitored. Most notably, the REA was absent among subjects who had monitored the left ear. Additional experiments showed that the "priming bias" is material-specific; it did not occur if consonant-vowel nonsense syllables (CV's) were substituted for digit names in either the selective listening task or the subsequent free-report test. The findings help clarify the nature of one of the attentional mechanisms that influence auditory laterality.