Reaction time in focused and in divided attention

Undergraduates listened to dichotic lists of words and responded to animal names by pressing a key. Group 1 (36 Ss) performed in a condition of focused attention to one of the messages and in a condition of divided attention, where both messages were relevant. Group 2 (8 Ss) performed in focused attention and in a single-message condition. It was found that there were many more omissions in divided than in focused attention, and mean reaction time (RT) was prolonged. There was no difference in RT between focused attention and the single-message condition. The occurrence of an animal name in the irrelevant message occasionally caused errors. Results are consistent with an effort theory of attention. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).