The right-hemisphere bias in conditional reasoning: A short report on multiple failures to replicate previous findings

Summary The present set of studies attempted to replicate Gellatly's (1985) findings that were supportive of Evan's (1982) hypothesis that the right hemisphere produces a selective bias towards the incorrect solution of a complex reasoning task. Subjects solved problems of the form if p then q. In four studies, participants simultaneously performed a bottle - balancing task on each hand to interfere with processing of the reasoning task in the right hemisphere. In the fifth study, the bottle - balancing task was replaced by a finger - sequencing task. The results of the five studies did not show that the interference with right-hemisphere activity resulted in better performance on the conditional-reasoning task. It is concluded that the hypothesis of a right-hemisphere bias in conditional reasoning is still in need of reliable findings.