Propositional and Appositional Modes Of Thought and Differential Cerebral Speech Lateralization in Navajo Indian and Anglo Children

Abstract

20 Navajo children were matched to 20 Anglo children according to sex, chronological age, and handedness at 2 different age levels. These matched subjects were administered 30 pairs of dichotically presented consonant-vowel (CV) syllables. An analysis of the children's performance on the dichotic task revealed that, while sex was not a factor, there was a distinct left-ear effect among the Navajo children as compared with the expected right-ear effect as found with the Anglo children. Furthermore, a developmental trend was evidenced. These results suggest that there are developmental preferences among Navajo children in processing receptive language in the right cerebral hemisphere. This oppositional preference is thought to be related to the linguistic characteristics of the Navajo language.