Cross-modal correlation of dichotic and tachistoscopic language laterality tasks: The importance of familial sinistrality

• Published in: Brain and language 1990-04, Vol.38 (3), p.384-397
• Main Authors: Krutsch, Annette J., McKeever, Walter F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Dichotic Listening Tests; Dominance, Cerebral - genetics; Female; Form Perception - genetics; Functional Laterality - genetics; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Language; Male; Miscellaneous; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reaction Time - physiology; Semantics; Speech Perception - physiology; Vision, Binocular - physiology; Vocabulary
• ISSN: 0093-934X; 1090-2155
• DOI: 10.1016/0093-934X(90)90122-W

Previous studies have found little if any correlation between dichotic and tachistoscopic language laterality task performance asymmetries. Problems with these studies have been that quite dissimilar auditory and visual tasks have often been used, and the reliability of the asymmetry measures has generally been unknown or, when known, relatively poor. We assessed the cross-modal correlation for two tasks, the Bilateral Object Naming Latency Task (BONLT) and the Dichotic Object Naming Latency Task (DONLT). These tasks are highly similar and have demonstrated high reliabilities. A significant, though rather small, cross-modal correlation was found ( r = + .28). When cross-modal correlations were computed for FS− and FS+ subjects separately, no correlation was found for FS+ subjects ( r = + .02), but the correlation for FS− subjects was highly significant ( r = + .54, p