Dichotic competition of simultaneous tone bursts of different frequency—II. Suppression and ear dominance functions

Abstract

The perceptual interaction of the two tones of a dichotically presented chord was studied as a function of the differences in the intensity between the right and left ear tones. Large but highly consistent differences in perceptual interactions were found in thirty subjects. In 23 per cent of the subjects the pitch of the tones presented to the right ear dominated the pitch of the dichotically perceived chord. In 40 per cent the left ear was dominant, and in 37 per cent there was no marked ear asymmetry. These and other differences between the individual psychometric curves were accounted for by postulating the existence of two independent functional properties of dichotic interactions—a suppression function and an ear dominance function.