DICHOTIC-LISTENING TO TEMPORAL TONAL STIMULI BY GOOD AND POOR READERS

The hypothesis that reading disability is associated with impairment i n the lateralization of temporal stimuli was tested by presenting 123 good- and poor-reading boys (Grades 4 through 6) with dichotic sets of temporal and nontemporal tonal stimuli for recognition. Reading abili ty was assessed by measuring proficiency in reading consonants, vowels , words, sentences and short stories. On the tone test, good readers s howed a right-ear advantage in reporting the temporal stimuli, and a l eft-ear advantage in reporting the nontemporal stimuli. Poor readers s howed the reversed pattern of response. Since right-ear advantage in r eport of given stimuli indicates left-hemispheric dominance for proces sing those stimuli, the data seem to suggest a link between reading di sability and left-hemispheric dysfunction in processing temporal stimu li.