The effects of background noise on dichotic listening to consonant-vowel syllables.
Lateralization of verbal processing is frequently studied with the dichotic listening technique, yielding a so called right ear advantage (REA) to consonant-vowel (CV) syllables. However, little is known about how background noise affects the REA. To address this issue, we presented CV-syllables either in silence or with traffic background noise vs. 'babble'. Both 'babble' and traffic noise resulted in a smaller REA compared to the silent condition. The traffic noise, moreover, had a significantly greater negative effect on the REA than the 'babble', caused both by a decreased right ear response as well as an increased left ear response. The results are discussed in terms of alertness and attentional factors.
Dos Santos Sequeira
Sarah
S
Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, University of Bergen, Jonas Lies vei 91, N-5009 Bergen, Norway. Sarah.Sequeira@uni-konstanz.de
Specht
Karsten
K
Hämäläinen
Heikki
H
Hugdahl
Kenneth
K
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D004007:Dichotic Listening Tests / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise; D010700:Phonetics; D000091402:Prohibitins; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests / Q000379:methods; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult