Laterality Factors in the Recall of Sentences Varying in Semantic Constraint

Abstract

The role of the left and right ears in listening to undistorted speech was evaluated in a short-term memory task. Twenty-four normal right-handed subjects listened to sentences with the same syntactic structure but varying in semantic integration [e.g., “The brave soldier fought the cruel war” (well integrated) versus “The glad soldier owned the tiny chair” (poorly integrated)]. All sentences were presented monaurally. Listeners were required to count backwards after each sentence (to block rehearsal) and then after 5 sec to repeat back what they could remember. For both levels of semantic integration, sentences presented at the right ear were recalled faster and with fewer errors than sentences presented at the left ear. These results indicate that laterality factors related to cerebral dominance for language functions influence short-term memory for sentences heard monaurally.