EFFECTS OF SEX AND SEX-ROLE ATTRIBUTIONS ON THE EAR ADVANTAGE IN DICHOTIC-LISTENING

The Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and a dichotic listening task were a dministered to 30 participants in order to investigate the effect of p olar sex (male, female) and spectral sex (masculinity, femininity) on hemispheric interactions. The dichotic pairs consisted of the consonan t-vowel syllables Bee, Dee, Gee, Pee, Tee, and Kee. Although overall p erformance was the same across groups, women demonstrated smaller righ t ear advantages than men, due primarily to smaller right ear scores. Less masculine men also had smaller right ear advantages than more mas culine men, but this difference was due primarily to greater left ear scores. These results were interpreted both in terms of the callosal r elay and direct access models of hemispheric processing. Based on thes e interpretations, it was suggested that sex and sex role attribution have similar, but not identical effects on interhemispheric relations.