Capture of attention in selective frequency listening

Four signal-detection experiments demonstrated robust stimulus-driven, or e xogenous, attentional processes in selective frequency listening. Detection of just-above-threshold signal tones was consistently better when the sign al matched the frequency of an uninformative cue tone, even with relatively long cue-signal delays (Experiment 1) or when as few as I in 8 signals wer e at the cued frequency (Experiment 2). Experiments 3 and 4 compared perfor mance with informative and uninformative cues. The involvement of intention al, or endogenous, processes was found to only slightly increase the size o f the cuing effect beyond that evident with solely exogenous processes, alt hough the attention band, a measure of how narrowly attention is focused, w as found to be wider when cues were informative. The implications for model s of auditory attention are discussed.