Order information in dichotic memory

Three experiments were performed using a recognition probe procedure to test the subject's recognition of the order of two items from a dichotically presented list. In all three experiments subjects were unable to recognize simultaneous items as having been simultaneous unless the critical pair was the last pair in the list. In contrast, they were able to identify the order of items not originally presented simultaneously at better than a chance level. Performance did not differ as a function of whether the two critical items were presented to the same or different ears. The data were interpreted as indicating that subjects divide attention between competing inputs in the dichotic memory task and that the eary-by-ear order of report is a result of the format in which the items are stored.