| Abstract: | The Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and a dichotic listening task were administered to 30 participants in order to investigate the effect of polar sex (male, female) and spectral sex (masculinity, femininity) on hemispheric interactions. The dichotic pairs consisted of the consonant-vowel syllables Bee, Dee, Gee, Pee, Tee, and Kee. Although overall performance was the same across groups, women demonstrated smaller right ear advantages than men, due primarily to smaller right ear scores. Less masculine men also had smaller right ear advantages than more masculine men, but this difference was due primarily to greater left ear scores. These results were interpreted both in terms of the callosal relay and direct access models of hemispheric processing. Based on these interpretations, it was suggested that sex and sex role attribution have similar, but not identical effects on interhemispheric relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
