| Abstract: | Investigated hemispheric asymmetries in children for processing auditory material varying in emotional intonation or verbal content. 31 kindergartners, 32 4th graders, and 32 8th graders reported on the emotional content and on the verbal content of dichotically presented sentences. Ss listened to tapes of 4 phrases spoken in tones that were happy, sad, angry, or neutral and to sentences that varied in verbal content only. Ss also completed a handedness questionnaire and a hearing test. All age groups showed a left-ear advantage for reporting on the emotional material and a right-ear advantage for reporting on the verbal material. For the emotional task, the degree of ear asymmetry did not vary significantly as a function of emotional category. Findings indicate the the right hemisphere is specialized for mediating auditory emotional stimuli as early as 5 yrs of age. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
