Sex Differences in Hemisphere Preference as Assessed by a Paper-And-Pencil Test

Abstract

The present study examined sex differences in hemisphere preference (HP) assessed by the Preference Test (PT). This instrument is designed to measure the extent to which normal subjects rely on right-hemisphere or left-hemisphere cognition. Factor analysis on the total sample (N = 1,057; 473 men and 584 women) revealed a clear two-factor structure (i.e., left-HP and right-HP), although separate analyses for men and women suggest that this structure is more straightforward in men than in women. The main differences between men and women have to do with PT items relevant to language abilities, where women tend to be more symmetrically distributed across the two factors. However, the frequency of right- and left-HP is similar in men and women and does not change for men when PT scores are recalculated after removal of unspecific items. Furthermore, once the items that assess verbal abilities were excluded, the corrected PT value for women showed higher right-HP. Our results provide some indications of a less pronounced lateralization of hemisphere-linked cognitive abilities in women.

Key Words:

• Sex differences
• cognitive style
• preference test