HEMISPHERIC INVOLVEMENT IN THE PERCEPTION OF SYNTACTIC PROSODY IS DYNAMICALLY DEPENDENT ON TASK DEMANDS

The first aim of this study was to determine if there was a significan t perceptual asymmetry for syntactic prosody and if it differed from t he perceptual asymmetry for emotional prosody. The second aim of this study was to determine if the observed asymmetries were the product of task demands or stimulus features. Experiment 1 consisted of a Syntac tic task and an Emotional task. In the Syntactic task, subjects identi fied Statement and Question prosody in dichotically presented sentence s. In the Emotional task, subjects identified Angry and Sad prosody in dichotically presented sentences. There was a significant left ear ad vantage for the Emotional task and no significant ear advantage for th e Syntactic task. In Experiment 2, subjects had to perform an Emotiona l prosody task with the syntactic Statement and Question prosody stimu li from Experiment 1. There was a significant left ear advantage, indi cating that the perceptual asymmetry was determined by task demands an d not stimulus features. (C) 1998 Academic Press