Effects of Concurrent Verbal and Musical Tasks on a Unimanual Skill

Subjects balanced a dowel rod on the right or left index finger while speaking, while remaining silent, and while humming a melody. In males balancing times for the right hand decreased with concurrent verbalization. Verbalization had no effect on left hand performance in males, nor on either hand in females. Concurrent humming had no effect on performance of males or females. Poorer right hand performance by males when verbalizing is attributed to interference with right-sided motor control by the left hemisphere due to verbal activity programmed by the same hemisphere. Unimpaired right hand performance in verbalizing females suggests that the language function is less clearly lateralized in females than in males. The possibility that music may be shared by both hemispheres is discussed.

[1]  H. P. Bahrick,et al.  Time sharing as an index of automatization. , 1958, Journal of experimental psychology.

[2]  J L Bradshaw,et al.  Attention and Hemispheric Differences in Reaction Time during Simultaneous Audio-Visual Tasks , 1973, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[3]  M. Kinsbourne,et al.  Generalized and Lateralized Effects of Concurrent Verbalization on a Unimanual Skill , 1971 .

[4]  D. Allport,et al.  On the Division of Attention: A Disproof of the Single Channel Hypothesis , 1972, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[5]  L. Brooks.  An Extension of the Conflict between Visualization and Reading , 1970 .

[6]  R. Sperry.  Lateral specialization in the surgically separated hemispheres. , 1974 .

[7]  G. Geffen,et al.  Ear differences and delayed auditory feedback: effects on a speech and a music task. , 1971, Journal of experimental psychology.

[8]  G. M. Robinson,et al.  Rhythm is processed by the speech hemisphere. , 1974, Journal of experimental psychology.

[9]  Donald G. Doehring,et al.  Absence of stimulus effects in dichotic singing , 1973 .

[10]  D. Broadbent,et al.  ON THE INTERACTION OF S-R COMPATIBILITY WITH OTHER VARIABLES AFFECTING REACTION TIME. , 1965, British journal of psychology.

[11]  T. Bever,et al.  Cerebral Dominance in Musicians and Nonmusicians , 1974, Science.

[12]  D. Kimura.  Left-right Differences in the Perception of Melodies , 1964 .

[13]  J. Bogen,et al.  Musical Tests for Functional Lateralization with Intracarotid Amobarbital , 1971, Nature.

[14]  J E Bogen,et al.  The other side of the brain. II. An appositional mind. , 1969, Bulletin of the Los Angeles neurological societies.

[15]  P. H. Lindsay,et al.  Quantification of shared capacity processing in auditory and visual discrimination. , 1967, Acta psychologica.

[16]  J. Mcglone,et al.  Sex differences in cerebral processing of visuospatial tasks. , 1973, Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior.