Hemispheric Specialization for Speech Perception in Six-Year-Old Black and White Children from Low and Middle Socioeconomic Classes

Six-year-old black and white Ss from low and middle socioeconomic classes (SEC) were presented a dichotic listening task composed of syllables pairs. All groups evidenced a significant right-ear advantage (REA) at recall. The magnitude of the REA did not differ as a function of race or SEC. This outcome suggests that earlier results which indicated smaller REA's for low SEC Ss, may have been due to a “floor effect” resulting from task difficulty and motivational variables.