The Performance of Stutterers on Dichotic Listening Tasks Thought to Reflect Cerebral Dominance

Forty adults, 20 stutterers and 20 nonstutterers, performed one monotic verbal listening task and three dichotic listening tasks, one verbal and two nonverbal. Left and right ear scores, as well as difference scores between the ears, were derived from each of these tests. Stutterers had smaller difference scores between ears on the dichotic verbal task than did nonstutterers. Seventy-five percent of the nonstutterers obtained higher right ear scores on the dichotic verbal task, whereas 55% of the stutterers had higher left ear scores. No differences were found between the two groups on the other tests.