Hemispheric Asymmetry in Making Absolute Judgments of Monaurally Presented Pure Tones

Abstract

Some recent studies have suggested that hemispheric asymmetry may be related to the quantity of information contained in a stimulus. To test this possibility, 20 subjects were given an auditory absolute-judgment task in which they were required to identify 3, 5, or 7 pure tones recorded on a tape. The presentation was monaural, and headphone placement was randomly alternated across subjects. The left ear showed a statistically significant advantage in identifying 5 tones and an insignificant advantage in identifying 3 or 7 tones. This result is discussed in terms of previous work on auditory channel-capacity and the desirability of using an absolute-judgment paradigm to study hemispheric asymmetry for other kinds of stimuli is indicated.