Retrieval time in a monaural learning task.

This study examined the possible role of retrieval and/or storage processes in auditory asymmetry phenomena. Subjects pressed a left- or right-hand key labeled "yes" or "no" to indicate whether a monaural tone had just been presented to the ear specified by a left or right probe light. Subjects were faster in indicating that the probed ear had been stimulated than in indicating that it had not been stimulated. Subjects also responded faster when the location of the response key and probe light corresponded than when they did not. The methodological implications of the latter finding for research on hemispheric dominance were discussed. Finally, there was no evidence that retrieval time varied as a function of either the ear probed or the ear stimulated.