A Behavioral Measure of Selective Listening

Abstract

The present paper describes a behavioral measure of selective listening to one of simultaneously presented auditory stimuli. The subject sits on a chair with his head between two small panels. The subject is asked to choose one of the two texts presented from one of two speakers behind the panels and listen to it as attentively as possible. When the subject declines his head in the direction of the speaker which is playing the text he chose, the volume of the other speaker is decreased so that he can concentrate on the chosen text. The time the subject declines his head in the direction of each auditory stimulus is considered a gross measure of allocation of auditory attention.