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.

A study published in the ‘Journal of Experimental Psychology’ has shown that left-handers actually think differently and goes so far as to suggest that handedness may influence left-handers’ decisions on everything. This is why I provide instructions to reverse the headphones if you are left-handed when listening to any of my motivational audios.

When you consider a large symphony orchestra may have over a hundred players. There are different sections in such an orchestra. There are more high-pitched instruments on the right hand side of an orchestra. If you are looking at the audience from the stage the higher pitched instruments are usually seated on the right. This means the higher pitches are closer to the players’ right ears and so they will most likely hear the high pitches more clearly. When you look at the situation this way then you can see the conductor of the orchestra is also at a disadvantage! This is because the high pitches are nearer their left ears.

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.

Just because you are right-handed does not mean you are dominant in right-sidedness! As much as you have a primary hand, you also have a primary eye, leg and foot, etc! Not all of these are interrelated to the same side of your body. You may use a tennis racket with your right hand but use your left boot as the primary kicker when playing soccer. Studies of undergraduates found that they associate upbeat thoughts with their primary side and downbeat thoughts with their secondary side.

Information from studies revealed fewer women are left-handers compared to men. Just because both mother and father are left-handers does not necessarily mean their child will be left-handed. In fact there is only a one in four chance that their child will be left-handed! Just out of interest, since 1877 only nine left-handed players, seven men and two women, have ever won a Wimbledon tennis singles title.

It can be quite annoying for left-handers to have to keep switching their headphones around, but this can be overcome if you are using a headset with multiple cables going to your PC, just change the cables around. You can also swap right to left by going into your PC’s soundcard, if it has this set-up installed.

I do suggest that you experiment with headphone use, though, because the ‘left-brain/right-brain’ approach is speculative and experimental. Everyone processes sensory input differently. Do be aware, however, not all left-handed people have switched brain functions, so experiment when listening to audio therapy programs through headsets.

Left-handed utensils and tools have come on a long way since everything was ‘right-handed’. Now you can even get a left-handed pen, tape-measures, corkscrews, scissors and much more. What is interesting is that you can get a boomerang for left-handers, but left-handed headsets are more difficult to come by! Roughly 10 percent of the world’s population are left-handed. That’s an awful lot of left-handed people from the 7 billion world population! Maybe the electronics industry will take note.

As a baby, Stephen Richards was a natural left-hander, but he was forced to use his right hand by a brutaleducation system. The ‘Edinburgh Handedness Inventory’ is an ideal resource to find your dominant hand. Don’t reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.

Tags: Mental Health

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