Subject: Re: Curious dichotic effect From: Pierre Divenyi <pdivenyi(at)MARVA4.NCSC.MED.VA.GOV> Date: Wed, 24 Jan 2001 16:09:31 -0800Mitch, The phenomenon is one that Efron and Yund have investigated and wrote about for about 10 years, starting in 1976. You find a few of the articles in JASA (v59/4, 1976; v62/3, 1977; v66/1, 1979) and many in Brain and Language (1982 and 1983). In brief, the effect seems to be related to the difference between the two ears' tonotopic layout. This difference, which they called "ear dominance" is highly idiosyncratic, though (according to Judith Lauter's superb overview of the various ear difference phenomena, in JASA v71/3, 1982) the differences involving "simple stimuli", such as pure tones, produce a left-ear advantage in more than 50% of the population. Try to repeat your experiment with frequencies in the 1-2-kHz range: I bet you will see a larger effect. Pierre Divenyi **************************************************************************** Pierre Divenyi, Ph.D. Speech and Hearing Research (151) V.A. Medical Center, Martinez, CA 94553, USA Phone: (925) 370-6745 Fax: (925) 228-5738 E-mail : pdivenyi(at)marva4.ebire.org ****************************************************************************