Amount of verbal information and ear-differences in 5- and 6-year old boys and girls

Tow experiments were performed. The first was to determine the effects of varying the amount of information in verbal instructions presented monaurally on differences between ears and sex in 5-yr.-old boys and girls. Verbal instructions were given for the performance of a visual-motor task. The results indicated that the amount of verbal information affects ear-asymmetry in girls and not boys. The second experiment was performed to determine the effects of varying the amount of verbal information in verbal instructions presented monaurally on differences between ears, sexes, and reading ability of 6-yr.-old boys and girls. The findings indicated that above average readers performed better than below average readers. Ear-asymmetry was observed across sex and reading abilities for sentences containing 7 and 8 stimulus attributes. No ear-asymmetry was observed in sentences containg 9 stimulus attributes. The results appear to support the progressive lateralization hypothesis which states that ear-asymmetry is dependent on task conditions. The results also support sex differences in the development of brain lateralization.