Cerebral Dominance for the Perception of Arpeggiated Triads

Abstract

Cerebral dominance for the perception of arpeggiated triads that differed in tonality, pattern, and the combination of tonality and pattern was investigated presenting stimuli monaurally in a matching-to-sample paradigm. Responses of musically inexperienced adults, adult musicians, musically inexperienced children, and musically trained children were compared to assess how music training and age affect lateral dominance. The data suggested that there are developmental changes. Nonmusical adults presented a significant right ear superiority for the perception of the triad pattern task, implying that an analytic process had been applied to perceive the stimuli. Both nonmusical adults and nonmusical children presented a significant left ear superiority for the perception of triads differing in tonality and pattern. This indicates that a gestalt process had been applied for the perception of these stimuli. Musically trained adults and musically trained children perceived all three tasks without significant ear differences, showingthat both hemispheres had become equally able to perceive the tasks due to music training.