CROSS-LANGUAGE DIFFERENCES IN DICHOTIC LISTENING*

Greater right ear advantage in dichotic listening to English-spoken digits among English-speakers than among Japanese- and Hebrew-speakers (Hatta and Dimond 1981; Nachshon 1986) was attributed either to effects of linguistic properties of the respective native languages, or to the sequence of language acquisition. In order to evaluate the two alternative hypotheses, 112 English-Hebrew and 140 Hebrew-English bilinguals recalled a series of three-digit dichotic sets. Differential ear advantages were expected on the basis of the two hypotheses. Data analysis showed, however, that while recall was better for digits spoken in the native than in the non-native languages, no significant differences in right ear advantage between the two groups were found. Procedural effects might account for this result.     

Sharing as Hope and Celebration

And no one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch tears away from the garment and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; if it is, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins and so both are preserved. (Matt. 9:16–17)     

Effects of directiveness of instructions and surveillance on the production and persistence of children's donations

All subjects earned tokens for correct size judgments and observed a model who had previously earned tokens at the same task donate some of her earnings. Children were subsequently given an opportunity to donate some of their tokens to children at another school. The opportunity to give occurred in presence (surveillance) or absence of the experimenter and after being presented with either directive (you must give) or permissive (you can give if you want to) instructions. Directive instructions and surveillance both produced greater initial giving for all children. In a second session with no modeling, no surveillance, and no further instructions, earlier directive instructions also produced greater persistence of giving for all children. Permissive instructions produced greater reductions in giving over time for boys than for girls. The present findings suggest that directive instructions produce greater initial giving and that donating persists better under these more explicit conditions.