During the course of providing curative CDs I researched the differentiation in how left and right-handed listeners pick up sounds of particular frequencies when listening through earphones. My suspicions were proved correct when a study by a psychology master revealed that, indeed, there was a difference in how left and right-handed listeners picked up on sound.
The 'Journal of Experimental Psychology' carried findings which revealed how left-handed people deliberate over things quite differently than was first thought. Even down to how a left-handed person makes a choice is all, apparently, because of the use of a particular hand as the dominant one. To date, all of my recent self-help audios carry instructions for left-handers to reverse their stereo headsets.
Using an ensemble as an example off how we hear certain pitches, just take a look at how all or most of the musicians playing high-pitched instruments are located to the left-hand side if you view them from the audience side. Could there be method in this set-up? Well, the rest of the musicians benefit from this because from where they are positioned they will certainly hear the highest pitches in great detail. These greater pitched sounds are coming into their right ears with a crisp clarity. However, the leader conducting the ensemble receives those pitches from their right-hand side, putting them at a disadvantage.
An in-depth study of right-handers has shown that they have a right-ear advantage, the durations of hearing for the right and left ears were compared for 81 right and 45 left-handed high school students. The 1991 'Previc hypothesis' supported that right-handers have a right-ear advantage and left-handedness was found to be associated with a left-ear advantage. This explains why it is important to use headphones accordingly when listening to therapy-based CDs that need to be used in conjunction with headphones.
Between the left-handers and right-handers there was found to be a significant positive correlation between the durations of hearing for the right and left ears and the scores for right-handedness for right-handed subjects. These results suggest hand preference may be related to asymmetry of aural sensitivity.
To do a quick test to see which of your hands is the dominant one, it might help you to use what is called the 'Edinburgh Handedness Inventory'. This test is simple, just tick a few boxes and the results can be worked out in minutes. This is available from the link in the author box at the end of this article. You will find this to be beneficial for deciding which might be your dominant ear when you use certain audio CDs that are of a therapeutic nature.
Don't think, though, that just because you are left-handed that your whole body is dominant on the left side, this is not so! You might find you are left-handed but it could be your right eye which is the more dominant one of the two! You could be left-handed but right-footed when you kick a ball! Undergraduates, it has been claimed; connect constructive thoughts with their principal side and less constructive thoughts with their non-dominant side.
The male of the human species is more prone to having dominant use of their left hand than the lady of the species. Just because a child's mother and father are both left-handed does not mean they will be, as there is only a 1 in 4 chance of this being the case. Apparently in the last 80 years there have been 7 left-handed US presidents, Barack Obama being one of them!
What can you do to overcome the problem of having to keep putting your headphone set on the reverse way round if you are left-handed? Well you if your headphones are connected to your computer via cables you can swap them around so that left source goes to right ear and vice versa. Some sound cards and receivers allow you to electronically swap the source.
During your exploration into left/right-hand speaker use, feel free to test and try out reversing the headset earphones. There is nothing certain about left or right ear dominance, and certainly during normal listening to music you do not need bother with reversing the headset. A 'switched' brain function is not always apparent, so do ensure you use the headphones in the best way possible to gain the maximum benefit.
Nowadays you can get all sorts of gizmos and items for left-handed use: tape measures, pencil sharpeners, scissors, golf clubs, watches and more. You can even get a left-handed boomerang! What about the availability of left-handed headphones? They seem to be a little thin on the ground, and why is this when there are some 700 million left-handers in the world?
As a child, Stephen Richards was a natural left-hander, but he was forced to use his right hand by an anachronistic education system. The 'Edinburgh Handedness Inventory' is an ideal resource to find your dominant hand.
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