In Broadbent’s “split span” experiments, he found that people prefer to recall two dichotically presented sets of digits on an “ear by ear” basis. Broadbent interpreted this preference as indicating:

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In Broadbent’s split-span experiments, the key idea is that people tend to recall dichotically presented digits ear by ear, suggesting something about how attention is allocated to channels and filters. 
Option 1: 'This form of recall prevents overload of the limited capacity channel.' This statement could be seen as aligning with the notion of a bottleneck, but Broadbent’s interpretation emphasized filter switching rather than general overload of a channel. The split-span finding is better explained in terms of switching costs between channels than a simple channel overload claim. 
Option 2: 'ensures that two items in memory do not compete to pass through the filter at the same time.' Broadbent’s model posits a single selective filter that determines which input passes through; the idea of two items in memory competing to pass through the filter at the same time is not the core mechanism described by the split-span results. This misframes how selection and processing passively operate in the model. 
Option 3: 'prevents attenuation of the signals passing through the filter.' Attenuation is more closely associated with Treisman’s alternative concept, where unattended information is not entirely blocked but attenuated. Broadbent’s original split-span interpretation emphasizes clean filtering with fewer switches, not attenuation avoidance. 
Option 4: 'This form of recall is more efficient because it involves fewer filter switches.' This directly captures the core insight from Broadbent’s split-span work: reducing the number of times attention must switch between channels lowers cognitive cost, leading to more efficient recall. The experimental pattern supports the idea that selective filtering operates at a switchable boundary, so fewer switches mean smoother processing and better performance across dichotic tasks.

In Broadbent’s “split span” experiments, he found that people prefer to recall two dichotically presented sets of digits on an “ear by ear” basis. Broadbent interpreted this preference as indicating:Single choice

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