Relative loudness judgments of material presented dichotically

Abstract

Three groups of 12 Ss listened to white noise of 80, 90, or 115 dB presented to one ear, while they shadowed words presented at an intensity of 90 dB to the other ear. Subsequently, they were asked to judge whether the noise or the speech was louder or if they were of the same intensity. All 12 Ss fudged 90-dB shadowed speech to be louder than 80-dB noise, 11 out of 12 Ss judged 90-dB shadowed speech to be louder than 90-dB noise, and 8 out of 12 Ss judged 90-dB shadowed speech to be louder than 115-dB noise. The results are interpreted as providing some support for Treisman’s filter-amplitude theory of attentional selection.