ABSTRACT
As outlined in the introduction, the initial questions about selective attention were primarily concerned with detecting auditory stimuli and selective listening to auditory messages. Two auditory paradigms dominated the scene, namely, dichotic listening and shadowing. In both, the question was of how well individuals may process (divide attention) or keep apart (focus attention) simultaneously presented messages. When the individual is focused, one message is attended to, and the other one is ignored. What, then, is the fate of the unattended message? Are there limits in focusing on one and ignoring the other message?
