Laterality effects with visual perception of

Abstract

Using the paradigm denoting a contralateral relationship between visual field and brain hemisphere, laterality effects with music notation and dots were investigated. Two groups of readers of advanced piano music were selected, one good, one poor. Each group participated in two visual half-field experiments, one using random dot patterns and the other using musical chords. Significant opposite field effects were found for the two kinds of stimuli across reading groups, the left field for dots and the right field for chords. With dots, a significant sex effect emerged, with males superior to females across groups. The only significant group difference appeared in the chord experiment, in which the good group was superior. A practice effect also was found only with chords. Results suggest that the left hemisphere is more important for recognition of music notation than the right. © 1980 Psychonomic Society, Inc.