The dichotic listening test is supposed to produce lateral differences in performance that would be in relationship with the functional asymmetry of the brain. Although the existence of this relationship is beyond doubt, the review of the literature shows that it may be affected by many uncontrolled factors and that cerebral dominance in normal people cannot be predicted on the basis of the test of dichotic listening. Some attempts to identify those uncontrolled factors are examined here. It appears, in addition, that the main contribution of the structural interpretation of the auditory laterality effect is that it provided a description of the neural course of auditory information. Regarding the hypotheses that inferiority of one ear would be due either to a delay in reaching the processing centers, or to a loss of information as a consequence of a longer pathway, it is claimed that the first is inconsistent with some empirical data and the second is, until now, entirely speculative.