ABSTRACT
An information processing model serves as a heuristic to understand capacity limitations and attentional effects in auditory-processing tasks. Experiments in backward recognition masking show no selective perception along the dimensions of spatial location, loudness, or sound quality. Some capacity limitation is shown, however, when an auditory perception task must be performed concurrently with visual recognition. Selective attention also occurs when observers are required to integrate and count a sequence of sounds although these same sound sequences can be monitored on a perceptual level without an attentional effect. Attentional effects in processing dichotic speech inputs are also described in terms of the model.
