title: Stability and ear advantage for dichotically presented environmental sound stimuli: development during early childhood.
abstract: 55 right-handed children with no family history of left-handedness received two dichotic presentations of environmental sounds. The mean test-retest interval was 9 days. Raw accuracy scores yielded acceptable temporal stability (rs > .72). The expected consistent left-ear advantage for environmental sound stimuli was only evident in younger and less mature children. Five- and 6-yr.-old children, particularly those with strong right-hand preferences, had a right-ear advantage for the stimuli. Their computed laterality coefficients showed low and nonsignificant test-retest reliabilities, however. Three- and 4-yr.-old children, particularly those with weak hand preferences, had a left-ear advantage for the same stimuli. Of the 3- and 4-yr.-old children who did not have strong right-hand preferences, 92% demonstrated consistent ear advantages across testing sessions and their laterality coefficient test-retest correlations were significant. In contrast, only 47% of the strongly right-handed 3- and 4-yr.-old children and 71% of the strongly right-handed 5- and 6-yr.-old children had consistent ear advantages for the same stimuli. It is suggested that the 3- and 4-yr.-old children processed these stimuli according to endogenous, stimulus-specific brain mechanisms and that learned processing strategies overrode these mechanisms for the 5- and 6-yr.-old children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Behavioral Sciences, University of California, Davis 95616, USA.
authors.forename: R H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Kraft
authors.forename: L V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Harper
authors.forename: L D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Nickel
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D001307:Auditory Perception; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004007:Dichotic Listening Tests; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male