Diotic Listening in Young Children

120 children, preschool through third grade, were given a diotic competing message task. The competing auditory messages were prerecorded and presented free field via loudspeaker. The messages consisted of a Signal message and a Distraction message varied systematically in relative intensity and content. The results indicated that errors on the competing message task: varied inversely with age, increased with changes toward more unfavorable Signal to Distraction levels for the younger children, and were directly influenced by the content of the distraction message for all ages.