Relationship between Performance and Preference Measures of Cognitive Laterality

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between two methods of assessing cognitive laterality, one by responses on a preference inventory and the other by assessing asymmetry of hemispheric performance on tests associated with processing in the left or right cerebral hemispheres. 87 graduate students were administered both instruments. Analysis showed negative or no relations between the preference and performance measures. The performance tests associated with left- and right-hemisphere functions were taken directly or adapted from tests showing left- or right-hemisphere superiority in unilateral lesioned patients, brain-divided patients, and normal subjects. The preference inventories were constructed on the basis of the same research but have not been validly related to brain functions. The results of this study suggest that the two types of instruments do not measure the same thing.