Binaural vs. dichotic listening

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Definition

Binaural Listening is when two messages are presented to both ears simultaneiously, while Dichotic Listening, the more common of the two, occurs when two messages are presented to separate ears. Therefore, Dichotic Listening results in the subject being presented with two different messages, one in each ear, and Binaural Listening is the result of the subject hearing two separate messages in both ears at the same time.

Significance

In Colin Cherry's examination of the Cocktail Party Problem, it was found that Dichotic listening was used more commonly. This means that people can focus on one message and ignore or reject all the other incoming messages that are being presented at the same time. Also, during studies of this, participants could tell the voice of the ignored message as female or male, but could not tell what the ignored message was even if it was repeated many times.