dichotic listening

An experimental technique used in AUDITORY PHONETICS to determine which hemisphere of the brain is more, or less, involved in the processing of speech or other sounds. Listeners are presented simultaneously with competing stimuli to each ear (e.g. [ba] to one and [ga] to the other) and must then report what they hear – in the left ear, in the right ear, or without specifying which. When the signal to one ear proves to be more accurately or rapidly reported, it is concluded that the opposite hemisphere is more involved in its processing.