Dichotic Listening

Dichotic listening is an experimental test, used in psychology research to reveal the side of speech dominance in the brain, either the left or right hemisphere, a phenomenon also called “hemispheric asymmetry,” or simply “lateralization.” In neuropsychology, dichotic listening is a common experimental paradigm and has become synonymous with presenting two speech sounds at the same time, one to the right ear and the other to the left ear. The instruction to subjects is simply to report which of the two sounds they perceived and to verbally or otherwise report after each trial presentation which one it was.

Although there exist a variety of variations of the exact procedure and the sounds used in dichotic listening experiments, a consensus has emerged over the years in many ...