AbstractPerformance on a dichotic split‐span task was found to be dependent, not only on the type of list and the method of recall, but also on theS's awareness of the list organization. On lists that had no alternation of stimulus classes between ears, neither recall by ear nor recall by temporal order was affected by the 5's awareness of list organization. However, on lists in which each dichotic item pair was of a different stimulus class,Ss in the awareness condition were more efficient using temporal recall, and less efficient using recall by ear, thanSs in the non‐awareness condition. The search hypothesis is discussed in the light of these resu